Breast Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Breast Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

Ethanol-induced in vitro invasion of breast cancer cells: the contribution of MMP-2 by fibroblasts.

Aye MM, Ma C, Lin H, Bower KA, Wiggins RC, Luo J

Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, Morgantown, WV, USA.

Ethanol is a tumor promoter and may promote metastasis of breast cancer. However, the underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Overexpression and high activity of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) are frequently associated with metastatic breast cancers and serve as a prognostic indicator of clinical outcome. MMP-2 is predominantly expressed in stromal fibroblasts and plays a pivotal role in regulating the invasive behavior of breast tumor cells. We hypothesized that ethanol may enhance the invasion of breast tumor cells by modulating the activity of fibroblastic MMP-2. With in vitro models (HS68 and CCD1056SK human fibroblasts), we showed that ethanol at physiologically relevant concentrations (50-200 mg/dl) activated MMP-2; conversely, at a higher concentration (400 mg/dl), it inhibited the MMP-2 activity. Consistently, conditioned medium collected from ethanol (50-200 mg/dl)-exposed fibroblasts markedly enhanced the invasive potential of breast cancer cells and mammary epithelial cells overexpressing ErbB2/HER2 (BT474, SKBR-3 and HB2(ErbB2) cells) but had little effect on cells with low ErbB2 levels (BT20 and HB2 cells). In contrast, conditioned medium obtained from ethanol (400 mg/dl)-treated fibroblasts inhibited cell invasion. Selective inhibitors of MMP-2 (SB-3CT and OA-Hy) eliminated ethanol-stimulated invasion, indicating that the effect of ethanol was mediated by MMP-2. Ethanol activated conventional PKCs and JNKs in fibroblasts; inhibitors of PKC (Go6850 and Go6976) and JNKs (SP600125) significantly inhibited ethanol-mediated MMP-2 activation as well as cell invasion, indicating that PKCs and JNKs play a role in ethanol-induced MMP-2 activation and cell invasion in vitro. Thus, ethanol-promoted breast cancer cell invasion may be mediated by the modulation of fibroblastic MMP-2.

Published 6 October 2004 in Int J Cancer, 112(5): 738-46.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Breast Cancer Research Today. All Rights Reserved.