Infrared Microspectroscopy and Imaging Analysis of Inflammatory and Non-Inflammatory Breast Cancer Cells and Their GAG Secretome

Abstract

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs)/proteoglycans (PGs) play a pivotal role in the metastasis of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). They represent biomarkers and targets in diagnosis and treatment of different cancers including breast cancer. Thus, GAGs/PGs could represent potential prognostic/diagnostic biomarkers for IBC. In the present study, non-IBC MDA-MB-231, MCF7, SKBR3 cells and IBC SUM149 cells, as well as their GAG secretome were analyzed. The latter was measured in toto as dried drops with high-throughput (HT) Fourier Transform InfraRed (FTIR) spectroscopy and imaging. FTIR imaging was also employed to investigate single whole breast cancer cells while synchrotron-FTIR microspectroscopy was used to specifically target their cytoplasms. Data were analyzed by hierarchical cluster analysis and principal components analysis. Results obtained from HT-FTIR analysis of GAG drops showed that the inter-group variability enabled us to delineate between cell types in the GAG absorption range 1350–800 cm−1. Similar results were obtained for FTIR imaging of GAG extracts and fixed single whole cells. Synchrotron-FTIR data from cytoplasms allowed discrimination between non-IBC and IBC. Thus, by using GAG specific region, not only different breast cancer cell lines could be differentiated, but also non-IBC from IBC cells. This could be a potential diagnostic spectral marker for IBC detection useful for patient management.

Who’s Who? Discrimination of Human Breast Cancer Cell Lines by Raman and FTIR Microspectroscopy

“…They are label-free, deliver chemical image maps apart from average biochemical information and can be reliably applied to both in vitro and in vivo conditions. Hence, there is an increasing number of reported studies on the application of infrared and Raman spectroscopies to monitor cells, both live and fixed (e.g., healthy from cancer discrimination and metabolic response to drugs) and tissues (e.g., cancer diagnosis and treatment monitoring) [ 4 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ]. Thanks to their distinctive characteristics and ease of automation, these techniques constitute an improved approach for cancer detection when compared to the currently used diagnostic methods such as the gold standard histopathological assessment (which lacks sensitivity and specificity at an early stage of the disease).…”

A Global Picture of Molecular Changes Associated to LPS Treatment in THP-1 Derived Human Macrophages by Fourier Transform Infrared Microspectroscopy

“…Considering its intensity variation, which is synchronous with that of other bands assigned to lipid moieties, we tentatively assign it mainly to the CO-O-C stretching vibrations of phospholipids [ 22 , 30 ]. Moreover, it has been also associated with the C-OH and C-C stretching and C-O-H bending of carbohydrates [ 42 , 43 ] and with the SO 4 and C-O-S stretching of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), such as heparin and heparan sulphate [ 44 , 45 ]. GAGs are highly heterogeneous linear macromolecules made up of a repeating disaccharide unit, with a variable number of sulphates.…”

Construction of a ferroptosis-based prognostic model for breast cancer helps to discriminate high/low risk groups and treatment priority

“…It is also known that the dysregulation of extracellular matrix deposition promotes breast cancer aggressiveness by maintaining important growth, invasion, and survival-related signaling pathways ( 34 , 35 ). Glycosaminoglycans are biomarkers and targets for the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of breast cancer and play a key role in their growth ( 36 , 37 ). Therefore, these functional enrichment analysis results suggest that ferroptosis-related genes may promote breast cancer progression by regulating some signaling pathways and the immune system at the early stage of breast cancer.…”