miRNA transcriptome profiling of spheroid-enriched cells with cancer stem cell properties in human breast MCF-7 cell line.

Intro: Spheroid culture especially on MCF-7 cell has been used as in vitro CSC model for anti-CSC drug discovery. Methods: Tumour spheroid of MCF-7 was generated and characterised for the biological features and CSCs characteristic comparing to the monolayer parental MCF-7 cells. Differential expression of miRNA between the spheroid and parental cells was evaluated using miRNA microarray expressions. Overall design: miRNA expression profiles of MCF-7 enriched CSCs spheroids and monolayer cultures were generated in triplicates by Affymetrix GeneChip miRNA_4.0 array.