Identification of characteristic compounds of moderate volatility in breast cancer cell lines

PLoS One. 2020 Jun 29;15(6):e0235442. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0235442. eCollection 2020.

Abstract

In this study, we were challenging to identify characteristic compounds in breast cancer cell lines. GC analysis of extracts from the culture media of breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, SK-BR-3, and YMB-1) using a solid-phase Porapak Q extraction revealed that two compounds of moderate volatility, 1-hexadecanol and 5-(Z)-dodecenoic acid, were detected with markedly higher amount than those in the medium of fibroblast cell line (KMST-6). Furthermore, LC-TOF/MS analysis of the extracts clarified that in addition to the above two fatty acids, the amounts of five unsaturated fatty acids [decenoic acid (C10:1), decadienoic acid (C10:2), 5-(Z)-dodecenoic acid (C12:1), 5-(Z)-tetradecenoic acid (C14:1), and tetradecadienoic acid (C14:2)] in MCF-7 medium were higher than those in medium of KMST-6. Interestingly, H2O2-oxidation of 5-(Z)-dodecenoic acid and 5-(Z)-tetradecenoic acid produced volatile aldehydes that were reported as specific volatiles in breath from various cancer patients, such as heptanal, octanal, nonanal, decanal, 2-(E)-nonenal, and 2-(E)-octenal. Thus, we concluded that these identified compounds over-produced in breast cancer cells in this study could serve as potential precursors producing reported cancer-specific volatiles.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Fatty Acids / analysis
  • Fatty Acids / metabolism*
  • Female
  • Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
  • Humans
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Solid Phase Microextraction
  • Tumor Cells, Cultured
  • Volatile Organic Compounds / analysis
  • Volatile Organic Compounds / metabolism*

Substances

  • Fatty Acids
  • Volatile Organic Compounds

Grants and funding

This study was funded by: a grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture of Japan (No. 15H01804) to KT. JOHNAN Co. also provided support for this study in the form of salary for RK. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section. No additional external funding was received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.