Gap junctions contribute to anchorage-independent clustering of breast cancer cells

BMC Cancer
Fabien GavaValérie Lobjois

Abstract

Cancer cell aggregation is a key process involved in the formation of clusters of circulating tumor cells. We previously reported that cell-cell adhesion proteins, such as E-cadherin, and desmosomal proteins are involved in cell aggregation to form clusters independently of cell migration or matrix adhesion. Here, we investigated the involvement of gap junction intercellular communication (GJIC) during anchorage-independent clustering of MCF7 breast adenocarcinoma cells. We used live cell image acquisition and analysis to monitor the kinetics of MCF7 cell clustering in the presence/absence of GJIC pharmacological inhibitors and to screen a LOPAC® bioactive compound library. We also used a calcein transfer assay and flow cytometry to evaluate GJIC involvement in cancer cell clustering. We first demonstrated that functional GJIC are established in the early phase of cancer cell aggregation. We then showed that pharmacological inhibition of GJIC using tonabersat and meclofenamate delayed MCF7 cell clustering and reduced calcein transfer. We also found that brefeldin A, an inhibitor of vesicular trafficking, which we identified by screening a small compound library, and latrunculin A, an actin cytoskeleton-disrupting agent, both im...Continue Reading

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Citations

Mar 14, 2020·FASEB Journal : Official Publication of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology·Solomon A MensahEno E Ebong
Jan 31, 2021·Cell Division·Julia BonnetValérie Lobjois
Nov 26, 2020·Cancer Management and Research·Wenjun HuLu Zang
May 27, 2021·Cancer Cell International·Zhibo LiuDaya Luo
Jul 14, 2021·Clinical & Experimental Metastasis·Emma WrennKevin Cheung

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
flow cytometry
light microscopy

Software Mentioned

MetaMorph
GraphPad Prism
MATLAB
BD Accuri
ImageJ

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