Gene expression profiles of mammary epithelial and breast cancer cells following fever range hyperthermia

Preclinical and clinical studies have shown for decades that tumor cells demonstrate significantly enhanced sensitivity to “fever range” hyperthermia (increasing the intratumoral temperature to 42-45oC) than normal cells, although it is unknown why cancer cells exhibit this distinctive susceptibility. To address this issue, mammary epithelial cells and three malignant breast cancer lines were subjected to hyperthermic shock and microarray analysis of the global transcription changes was subsequently performed. MCF10A (mammary epithelial cells) and MCF7, MDA231, and MDA468 breast cancer cells were grow at normal growth temperatures or subjected to 30 minutes of hyperthermic (45oC) shock followed by replacement with conditioned media at normal growth temperatures. RNA was collected 4 hours after shock and subjected to microarray analysis.