Comparing breast tumor cell-induced gene expression in primary mammary fibroblasts from MEKK1-deficient mice to fibroblasts from MEKK1+/+ mice

This study examined the importance of intracellular kinase MEKK1 in breast tumor-induced on gene expression in non-tumor mammary cells. The hypothesis tested in this study was that the kinase MEKK1 regulates breast tumor cells-induced expression of fibroblast genes that change the tumor microenvironment to promote breast tumor progression to metastasis. Results reveal that MEKK1 regulates expression of chemokines and other genes in normal breast stroma cells that contribute to the development of a tumor microenvironment that promotes metastasis. Primary mammary fibroblasts extracted from wild type or MEKK1-deficient mice. Total RNA was extracted from fibroblasts that were untreated (control) or treated with breast tumor-conditioned cell culture media for 8 hours. Each time point included 4 independent samples, for a total of 16 samples. Tumor cell-inducible gene expression was determined by comparing samples from the cells exposed to tumor factors to the untreated cells. >>>Submitter states: Non-normalized data were discarded one year after the experiments were conducted in 2010 and are no longer available<<<