Tracking and characterization of partial and full epithelial-mesenchymal transition cells in a mouse model of metastatic breast cancer

Fabiana Lüönd; Natascha Santacroce; Christian Beisel; Laurent Guérard; Thomas R Bürglin; Gerhard Christofori; Nami Sugiyama

doi:10.1016/j.xpro.2022.101438

Tracking and characterization of partial and full epithelial-mesenchymal transition cells in a mouse model of metastatic breast cancer

STAR Protoc. 2022 Jun 10;3(2):101438. doi: 10.1016/j.xpro.2022.101438. eCollection 2022 Jun 17.

Authors

Fabiana Lüönd¹, Natascha Santacroce², Christian Beisel², Laurent Guérard³, Thomas R Bürglin¹, Gerhard Christofori¹, Nami Sugiyama¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.
² Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.
³ Biozentrum, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.

Abstract

The various stages of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) generate phenotypically heterogeneous populations of cells. Here, we detail a dual recombinase lineage tracing system using a transgenic mouse model of metastatic breast cancer to trace and characterize breast cancer cells at different EMT stages. We describe analytical steps to label cancer cells at an early partial or a late full EMT state, followed by tracking their behavior in tumor slice cultures. We then characterize their transcriptome by five-cell RNA sequencing. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Luond et al. (2021).

Keywords: Cancer; Cell Biology; Cell Differentiation; Flow Cytometry/Mass Cytometry; Microscopy; Molecular Biology; RNAseq; Single Cell.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Cell Line, Tumor
Disease Models, Animal
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition* / genetics
Mice
Mice, Transgenic
Neoplasms*
Transcriptome