Supplementary Methods, Figure Legends 1-3 from Breast Cancer Cells in Three-dimensional Culture Display an Enhanced Radioresponse after Coordinate Targeting of Integrin α5β1 and Fibronectin
ARTICLE ABSTRACT
Tactics to selectively enhance cancer radioresponse are of great interest. Cancer cells actively elaborate and remodel their extracellular matrix (ECM) to aid in survival and progression. Previous work has shown that β1-integrin inhibitory antibodies can enhance the growth-inhibitory and apoptotic responses of human breast cancer cell lines to ionizing radiation, either when cells are cultured in three-dimensional laminin-rich ECM (3D lrECM) or grown as xenografts in mice. Here, we show that a specific α heterodimer of β1-integrin preferentially mediates a prosurvival signal in human breast cancer cells that can be specifically targeted for therapy. 3D lrECM culture conditions were used to compare α-integrin heterodimer expression in malignant and nonmalignant cell lines. Under these conditions, we found that expression of α5β1-integrin was upregulated in malignant cells compared with nonmalignant breast cells. Similarly, we found that normal and oncofetal splice variants of fibronectin, the primary ECM ligand of α5β1-integrin, were also strikingly upregulated in malignant cell lines compared with nonmalignant acini. Cell treatment with a peptide that disrupts the interactions of α5β1-integrin with fibronectin promoted apoptosis in malignant cells and further heightened the apoptotic effects of radiation. In support of these results, an analysis of gene expression array data from breast cancer patients revealed an association of high levels of α5-integrin expression with decreased survival. Our findings offer preclinical validation of fibronectin and α5β1-integrin as targets for breast cancer therapy. Cancer Res; 70(13); 5238–48. ©2010 AACR.
