Developmental Approach to Characterizing the Tissue-Invasion Gene Program in Breast Cancer.

摘要

The changes in the gene program of neoplastic cells that regulate the expression of an invasive phenotype are largely undefined. Direct comparisons of the gene expression profile displayed in normal and carcinomatous breast tissues have provided insights into the mechanisms underlying tumor progression. However, attempts to identify the gene products differentially expressed during invasion in vivo have been hampered by the fact that only a small percentage of the cells recovered from a tumor mass are actively engaged in invasive behavior at the time of isolation. Because tissue remodeling induced during mammary gland involution bears homology to early stages of carcinogenesis, the involuting mammary gland may be used to identify genes that control matrix turnover in cancerous states. To this end, we propose to (i) screen involuting versus resting mouse mammarv glands by oligonucleotide microarrayfor differentially expressed gene products associated with matrix remodeling, (ii) evaluate potential role ofdfferentially expressed gene products in regulating cell invasion in vitro and/or in vivo and (iii) evalitate role ofdifferentially expressed gene products in regulating breast cancer cell invasion.