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Fig. 2 | Breast Cancer Research

Fig. 2

From: Local estrogen axis in the human bone microenvironment regulates estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer cells

Fig. 2

Human bone tissue fragments preferentially sustain estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer cell viability in short-term co-culture. a Experimental design in which breast cancer cell suspensions were seeded into plastic wells or directly onto bone tissue fragments. b Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) of plate containing six breast cancer cell lines (ER+ MCF-7, ZR-75 and T-47D, ER-/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (Her2) + SK-BR-3, and ER- MDA-MB-231 and MCF-10A) on day 4 of culture shows signal generated during culture in plastic wells vs. bone tissue fragments isolated from total hip replacement (THR) specimen THR 151. c Ratio of averaged triplicate BLI signal following culture on bone vs. plastic for each cell line shown in (b), revealing highest ratios for the ER+ breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 (83.5x), ZR-75 (15.4x), and T-47D (18.3x), an intermediate ratio for ER-/HER2+ SK-BR-3 cells (9.2x), and lowest ratios for the ER- MDA-MB-231 (0.5x) and MCF-10A (0.3x) breast cells. d Averaged triplicate BLI signal detected for each cell line growing on plastic vs. bone shown in (b). BLI signal was significantly greater following culture on bone vs. plastic for the ER+ breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 (**p < 0.001), ZR-75 (*p < 0.01), T47-D (*p < 0.05), and the ER-/Her2-positive cell line SK-BR-3 (*p < 0.01), not different for the ER- MDA-MB-231 cells, and was significantly reduced for the ER- MCF-10A cells (*p < 0.05), as determined by t test (n = 3, error bars represent standard deviation). e Averaged triplicate BLI signal generated by MCF-7, SK-BR-3, and MDA-MB-231 cells cultured on plastic vs. bone fragments from a series of 12 THR surgical specimens. Signal was significantly greater following culture on bone vs. plastic for ER+ MCF-7 cells (p = 0.0053), whereas it was significantly reduced for ER- SK-BR-3 cells (p = 0.0184) and MDA-MB-231 cells (p = 0.0003) as determined by ANOVA (n = 3, error bars represent standard deviation). These results confirm that bone tissues from multiple patients preferentially sustain ER+ breast cancer cell viability in culture relative to ER- breast cancer cells

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