Primary cancer-associated fibroblasts exhibit high heterogeneity among breast cancer subtypes

Oliwia Piwocka; Marika Musielak; Igor Piotrowski; Katarzyna Kulcenty; Beata Adamczyk; Magdalena Fundowicz; Wiktoria Maria Suchorska; Julian Malicki

doi:10.5603/RPOR.a2023.0026

Primary cancer-associated fibroblasts exhibit high heterogeneity among breast cancer subtypes

Rep Pract Oncol Radiother. 2023 Jun 26;28(2):159-171. doi: 10.5603/RPOR.a2023.0026. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Oliwia Piwocka^{1

2

3}, Marika Musielak^{1

2

3}, Igor Piotrowski¹, Katarzyna Kulcenty¹, Beata Adamczyk⁴, Magdalena Fundowicz⁵, Wiktoria Maria Suchorska^{1

2}, Julian Malicki^{2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Radiobiology Laboratory, Department of Medical Physics, Greater Poland Cancer Centre, Poznań, Poland.
² Department of Electroradiology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland.
³ Doctoral School, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland.
⁴ Breast Surgical Oncology Department, Greater Poland Cancer Centre, Poznań, Poland.
⁵ Radiotherapy Ward I, Greater Poland Cancer Centre, Poznań, Poland.
⁶ Medical Physics Department, Greater Poland Cancer Centre, Poznań, Poland.

Abstract

Background: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are a diverse subset of cells, that is recently gaining in popularity and have the potential to become a new target for breast cancer (BC) therapy; however, broader research is required to understand their mechanisms and interactions with breast cancer cells. The goal of the study was to isolate CAFs from breast cancer tumour and characterise isolated cell lines. We concentrated on numerous CAF biomarkers that would enable their differentiation.

Materials and methods: Flow cytometry, immunofluorescence, and reverse transcription quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) were used to phenotype the primary CAFs.

Results/conclusions: According to our findings, there was no significant pattern in the classification of cancer-associated fibroblasts. The results of biomarkers expression were heterogeneous, thus no specific subtypes were identified. Furthermore, a comparison of cancer-associated fibroblasts derived from different BC subtypes (luminal A and B, triple-negative, HER2 positive) did not reveal any clear trend of expression.

Keywords: breast cancer; cancer-associated fibroblasts; cells isolation; primary culture; tumour heterogeneity.