The role of RhoC in cholesterol trafficking in breast cancer cells
Date
2011
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
Each year in the United States, greater than 280,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer, making this cancer the most common cancer occurring in American women. Although there are many classifications of breast cancer, inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) has proven to be the most deadly. Some important risk factors that have been associated with the development of extremely aggressive breast cancers, such as IBC, include obesity and diet. The effect of obesity on breast cancer diagnosis and survival is especially evident in the United States, where the over-consumption of high-fat foods continues to contribute to obesity in the nation. With this observation, the relationship between breast cancer and cholesterol has been explored more and more over the last decade. The present study investigated the differences, in cholesterol storage and metabolism, between breast cancer and non-cancerous cell lines. The results of this study support observations seen in other reports which show that cancerous breast tissues display a dysregulation of cholesterol homeostasis, resulting in increased cholesterol content. Additionally, the findings show a connection between the breast cancer cells' dependence on extracellular cholesterol and the environment from which they were derived. Furthermore, the results of this study have allowed us to put forth a new model which highlights the idea that breast cancer cells are more likely to invade or migrate when they are not able to obtain necessary cholesterol from their extracellular environments. This implication could serve to be important for determining novel methods of preventing breast cancer metastasis.