by Orbay, Hakan;
Hinchcliff, Katharine M.; Charvet, Heath J.; Sahar, David E.
Background: The authors
investigate the in vitro and in vivo interaction of human breast cancer cells
and human adipose-derived stem cells to address the controversy on the safety
of postmastectomy fat grafting. Methods: The authors co-cultured human
adipose-derived stem cells and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells in an in vitro
cell migration assay to examine the migration of breast cancer cells. In the in
vivo arm, the authors injected breast cancer cells (group I), human breast
cancer cells plus human adipose-derived stem cells (group II), human breast
cancer cells plus human fat graft (group III), and human breast cancer cells
plus human fat graft plus human adipose-derived stem cells (group IV) to the
mammary fat pads of female nude mice (n = 20). The authors examined the tumors,
livers, and lungs histologically after 2 weeks. Results: Migration of breast
cancer cells increased significantly when co-cultured with adipose-derived stem
cells (p < 0.05). The tumor growth rate in group IV was significantly higher
than in groups I and II (p < 0.05). The tumor growth rate in group III was
also higher than in groups I and II, but this difference was not statistically
significant (p > 0.05). Histologically, there was no liver/lung metastasis
at the end of 2 weeks. The vascular density in the tumors from group IV was
significantly higher than in other groups (p < 0.01). Conclusion: The
injection of breast cancer cells, fat graft, and adipose-derived stem cells
together increases breast cancer xenograft growth rates significantly.
