Assessing adaptive capabilities in triple negative breast cancer cells
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Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Our previous data suggests dihydrolipoamide S-succinyltransferase (DLST) as a key player in metabolic diversity within triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cells. In metastatic TNBC, cellular stress can come from a multitude of sources, one of them being nutrient availability. The study aims to see how different TNBC cell lines, which are heterogenous in their expression of DLST, adapt to nutrient stress, specifically if there are changes in mitochondrial structure and cell viability. METHOD: Two TNBC cell lines were chosen based on previous studies identifying their dependence or lack thereof on DLST. BT-549 and Hs578T are both epithelial cell lines that had originated from metastasized tumors. MCF10A is a cell line that was chosen as non-cancer control. Each cell line was subjected to a 48-hour starvation period post-seeding where they were measured for a cell viability and stained to analyzed mitochondrial morphology.
RESULTS: After the glucose starvation period, DLST-dependent BT-549 cells were able to maintain a higher cell viability percentage at lowering glucose concentrations in comparison to DLST-independent Hs578T cells. Fluorescent analysis of stained cells showed significant mitochondrial fragmentation in DLST-independent cells while there were elongated mitochondria DLST-dependent cells.
CONCLUSION: The results support the idea that differences in DLST expression and dependency, are correlated to adaptive potential in TNBC cell lines. Specifically, DLST-dependent TNBC cell line BT-549 exhibited adaptive persistence in comparison to DLST-independent TNBC cell line Hs578T.
Description
2025