Molecular characterization of exosome-like vesicles from breast cancer cells

• Published in: BMC cancer Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 44
• Main Authors: Kruger, Stefan, Abd Elmageed, Zakaria Y, Hawke, David H, Wörner, Philipp M, Jansen, David A, Abdel-Mageed, Asim B, Alt, Eckhard U, Izadpanah, Reza
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central 27.01.2014
• Subjects: Biomarkers; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - genetics; Breast Neoplasms - metabolism; Breast Neoplasms - pathology; Cell Line, Tumor; Chromatography, Liquid - methods; Exosomes - genetics; Exosomes - metabolism; Exosomes - pathology; Female; Gene Expression Profiling - methods; Health sciences; Humans; Mass spectrometry; Mass Spectrometry - methods; MCF-7 Cells; Medical research; Proteins; Proteomics; Proteomics - methods; Studies; Tumorigenesis
• ISSN: 1471-2407; 1471-2407
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2407-14-44

Membrane vesicles released by neoplastic cells into extracellular medium contain potential of carrying arrays of oncogenic molecules including proteins and microRNAs (miRNA). Extracellular (exosome-like) vesicles play a major role in cell-to-cell communication. Thus, the characterization of proteins and miRNAs of exosome-like vesicles is imperative in clarifying intercellular signaling as well as identifying disease markers. Exosome-like vesicles were isolated using gradient centrifugation from MCF-7 and MDA-MB 231 cultures. Proteomic profiling of vesicles using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) revealed different protein profiles of exosome-like vesicles derived from MCF-7 cells (MCF-Exo) than those from MDA-MB 231 cells (MDA-Exo). The protein database search has identified 88 proteins in MDA-Exo and 59 proteins from MCF-Exo. Analysis showed that among all, 27 proteins were common between the two exosome-like vesicle types. Additionally, MDA-Exo contains a higher amount of matrix-metalloproteinases, which might be linked to the enhanced metastatic property of MDA-MB 231 cells. In addition, microarray analysis identified several oncogenic miRNA between the two types vesicles. Identification of the oncogenic factors in exosome-like vesicles is important since such vesicles could convey signals to non-malignant cells and could have an implication in tumor progression and metastasis.