Exploring the Effects of Cellular Stress on Breast Cancer Metastasis

Cancer is characterized by two major features. The first is uncontrolled cell proliferation and the second is metastasis, which is the main cause of cancer related deaths. The causes of uncontrolled cell growth have been studied thoroughly and consequently the underlying mechanisms are fairly well understood. In contrast, the causes of metastasis are significantly less well understood. We are suggesting that metastasis occurs as a result of cancer cells removing themselves from the inhospitable environment inside tumors by employing normal cellular defense mechanisms. We grew MCF-7 and MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells in cell culture and exposed them to heat and hypoxia stress. Western blot analysis of the cell lysates showed an increase in furin expression in the heat and hypoxia stress conditions. The MCF-7 cells showed a decrease in PACE4 expression in the stress conditions. Invasion assay analysis of the MDA-MB-468 and MCF-7 cells under our experimental cell culture condition showed an increase in cell migration with the stress exposed cells. The Western blot results paired with the invasion assay findings suggest that heat and hypoxia stress can promote increased invasiveness of the breast cancer cells and may be an underlying mechanism that drives cancer metastasis. Further exploration of this hypothesis using 3-dimensional cell culture and an alternative method of testing MMP activity or expression would bolster our understanding of the biological mechanisms involved in cancer metastasis, leading to the identification of novel diagnostic or therapeutic targets in treating aggressive cancers.Master of Science (MS)BiologyUniversity of Michigan-Flinthttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/177124/1/Lewis2023.pdfDescription of Lewis2023.pdf : Thesi