Gene expression characteristics of breast cancer stem cells

Breast cancer stem cells have been found to be responsible for tumorigenic potential and resistance to therapy. This study aimed at comparing gene expression profiles in breast cancer, based on the differences of stem cells in their biological characteristics.

Four breast cancer cell lines with different molecular and biological characteristics were used to analyze 84 breast cancer-related gene expressions. These were the ductal human epithelial breast cancer cell line T47D (HTB-133) with metastatic origin, the invasive ductal human breast carcinoma cell line MDA-MB-231 (HTB-26), the ductal human epithelial breast cancer cell line BT-474 (HTB-20) and the human metastatic breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7 (HTB-22).

There were significant differences between the breast cancer cells and the stem cells, particularly in angiogenesis, migration, proliferation and the expression of the DNA repair genes.

These data indicated the absence of a general cancer stem cell in breast cancer. Our study supports the use of the term "breast cancer initiating cells" instead of breast cancer stem cells. All of these genetic differences should be taken into account in the planning of final therapeutic approach.