title: Substrate stiffness modulates mRNA expression profiling in breast cancer cells.
abstract: Identifying effective targets induced by ECM stiffness is of critical importance for treating metastatic cancer diseases, which are followed by changes in the mechanical microenvironment in cancer cells. In this study, polyacrylamide hydrogel substrates with different stiffnesses were prepared and mRNA microarrays were performed to analyze the mRNA expression profiles in breast cancer cell line SK-BR-3 grown on different stiffness substrates. The results indicated that the expressions of 1831 genes were changed significantly in the SK-BR-3 cells on the different stiffness substrates. GO and KEGG pathway analyses of the differently expressed genes in five significant profiles annotated that the most significant pathways were cell cycle, ubiquitin mediated proteolysis RNA transport and pathways in cancer. Finally, the network of genes and gene interaction based on these differently expressed genes was established, and the phosphorylation of AKT and ERK, respectively the downstreams of the PI3K and Ras signal pathways, was further validated. The genes identified in this study may represent good therapeutic targets, and further study of these targets may help to increase our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the pathological processes and therapy for metastatic breast cancer disease.
authors.affiliation: National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Cuiying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jiantao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China.|Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Fulong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Liao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Dongguo
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Han
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D019295:Computational Biology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism*; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
chemical_list: D012333:RNA, Messenger
keywords: Stiffness; bioinformatics; breast cancer; mRNA microarray; tumor microenvironment