A novel mouse model of human breast cancer stem-like cells with high CD44+CD24-/lower phenotype metastasis to human bone

摘要

Background: At present, our understanding of the development of bone metastasis is limited. Therefore, little progress has been made in preventing skeletal metastasis in the breast cancer patient. A satisfactory animal model that avoids the species-specific factor and simultaneously shares similarities to the clinical pathophysiological progression of breast cancer metastasizing to bone is unavailable. A subpopulation (CD44+/CD24-/lower) of breast cancer cells possesses stem/progenitor cell properties (cancer stem-like cell). CD44 potentiates the adherence of metastatic breast cancer cells to bone marrow endothelial cells. In the present study, we used hepatocyte growth factor to enhance the proportion of CD44+/CD24-/lower subpopulation in the human breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231. We used these human breast cancer stem-like cells and implantation of human bone to build a novel "human-source" model of human breast cancer skeletal metastasis.