title: IL-6-induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition promotes the generation             of breast cancer stem-like cells analogous to mammosphere cultures.
abstract: Recently, the inflammatory cytokine IL-6 has been reported as a potent inducer             of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in breast cancer cells with an epithelial             phenotype. Furthermore, EMT induces stem cell features in normal and transformed             mammary cells. We explored whether IL-6-induced EMT promoted the generation of             breast cancer stem-like cells (BrCSCs) in epithelial-like breast cancer cells,             and whether the cytokines EGF and bFGF, analogous to IL-6, per se induced epithelial-mesenchymal             transition, resulting in the enrichment of BrCSCs in mammosphere cultures. Herein,             we provide evidence that IL-6 is capable of generating CD44+ cells with stem-like             properties through induction of the EMT in the epithelial-like T47D breast cancer             cells. We also show that mammosphere cultures of epithelial-like breast cancer             cells, T47D, MCF7, ZR-75-1 and MDA-MB-453 cells, consistently generated stem-like             cancer cells solely as a result of the EGF and bFGF cytokines in the mammosphere             media mediating EMT. This finding demonstrated the link between the inflammatory             cytokine IL-6 and BrCSCs and identified an important mechanism for the enrichment             of BrCSCs in mammosphere cultures. Thus, EMT appears to be a critical mechanism             for the induction of cancer cells with stem-like properties, and EMT of non-stem             cancer cells could be a source of CSCs.
authors: Departments of Radiation Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, PR China.
authors: Guozhu
authors: G
authors: Xie
authors: Qiwei
authors: Q
authors: Yao
authors: Ying
authors: Y
authors: Liu
authors: Shasha
authors: S
authors: Du
authors: Aihua
authors: A
authors: Liu
authors: Zhaoze
authors: Z
authors: Guo
authors: Aimin
authors: A
authors: Sun
authors: Jian
authors: J
authors: Ruan
authors: Longhua
authors: L
authors: Chen
authors: Changsheng
authors: C
authors: Ye
authors: Yawei
authors: Y
authors: Yuan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D058750:Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000276:immunology; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051379:Mice; D016688:Mice, Inbred NOD; D016513:Mice, SCID; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors; D015850:Interleukin-6