title: The gene expression profiles of canine mammary cancer cells grown with carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) as a co-culture in vitro.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is supposed that fibroblasts present in tumour microenvironment increase cancer invasiveness and its ability to metastasize but the mechanisms have not been clearly defined yet. Thus, the current study was designed to assess changes in gene expression in five various cancer cell lines grown as a co-culture with the carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in vitro.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A carcinoma-associated fibroblast cell line was isolated from a canine mammary cancer. Then, a co-culture of cancer cells with the CAFs was established and maintained for 72 hrs. Having sorted the cells, a global gene expression in cancer cells using DNA microarrays was examined. The analysis revealed an up-regulation of 100 genes and a down-regulation of 106 genes in the cancer cells grown as a co-culture with the CAFs in comparison to control conditions. The PANTHER binomial statistics tool was applied to determine statistically over-manifested pathways (p < 0.05). Bulk of the up-regulated genes are involved in the adhesion, the angiogenesis, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and generally take part in the developmental processes. These results were further confirmed using real-time qPCR. Moreover, a wound-healing assay and growth characteristics on Matrigel matrix showed that CAFs increase cancer cell migration and matrix invasion.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of the current study showed that the co-culturing of cancer cells and the CAFs caused significant changes to the cancer gene expression. The presence of the CAFs in a microenvironment of cancer cells promotes adhesion, angiogenesis and EMT.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-WULS, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland. magdalena_krol@sggw.pl
authors.forename: Magdalena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Król
authors.forename: Karol M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Pawłowski
authors.forename: Katarzyna
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Szyszko
authors.forename: Henryk
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Maciejewski
authors.forename: Izabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dolka
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Manuali
authors.forename: Michał
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jank
authors.forename: Tomasz
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Motyl
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000378:metabolism*; D004285:Dogs; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D015674:Mammary Neoplasms, Animal / Q000378:metabolism*; D018396:Mucin-1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary
chemical_list: D018396:Mucin-1