Objective: To study the influence of breast carcinoma cells on normal endothelial cells.
Methods: Human endothelial cells were isolated from umbilical cord blood. Medium Z-MCF-7-EC was established and was used to co-culture the normal endothelium cells (ECs) and human breast cancer cells of the line MCF-7. Normal endothelial cells cultured by itself were used as control. Light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were used to observe the morphology of the 2 kinds of endothelial cells. Expression of the genes ESM, IGFBP-3, alphavbeta3, VE-C, and Tie-2-2 was analyzed by semi-quantitative RT-PCR using a house-keeping gene beta(2m) as inner reference gene.
Results: The ECs co-cultured with MCF-7 breast cancer cells were abnormal in shape with increased size of nucleus and nucleolus, increased size ratio of nuclear to nucleoplasm, increased depth of surface fenestration, loosed and distorted endoplasm, increased size of cell-cell junctions, decreased number of surface microvilli, and tubules formed by ECs. The expression values of the genes ESM, IGFBP-3, alphavbeta3, VE-C, and Tie-2-2 in the ECs co-cultured with MCF-7 breast cancer cells were all up-regulated in comparison with those in the controls (P < 0.01, P < 0.05, P < 0.01, P < 0.01, and P < 0.05 respectively).
Conclusion: Breast cancer cells promote formation of new vessels with endothelial cells different from the normal ECs in character and behavior.