Mitotic Spindle Positioning in Breast Cancer

摘要

The purpose of this project was to determine whether mitotic spindle position differs in benign versus malignant breast tissues, and to test whether estradiol alters spindle position. The most significant findings are that mammary tissue shows planar spindle orientation. Information about spindle position in breast cancer tissues for comparison is still pending, awaiting an additional collaboration. The other significant finding is that spindle orientation appeared random in MCF10-A cells and an endometrial cancer cell line (Ishikawa), but regulated in three dimensional cysts of MDCK cells. This regulation is sensitive to disruption of actin and microtubules, and to EGTA treatment. Now that the postdoc working on the project has left, I want to re- visit the experiments with MCF-10A cells using serum free media.