Obesity and Cancer
Obese women have an increased risk of dying from breast cancer. We are interested in understanding the specific interactions between fat cells and breast cancer cells that drive this phenomenon.
Tumour cells exist in a complex microenvironment that includes fat cells and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins. The ECM influences both fat cell function and breast cancer cell development. Thus, we developed model that incorporates the ECM, fat cells, and breast cancer cells so that we can better study these interactions in the lab. We found that fat cells cause breast cancer cells to change in a way that could allow the breast cancer cells to be better able to form tumours at secondary sites.
Mostly recently, we have identified a protein called LOX (lysyl oxidase) as being secreted from adipocytes when they are cultured with ECM. LOX is responsible for causing the alterations in breast cancer cells. We are currently trying to figure out how this is happening.
This work was funded by 糖心视频 University seed funds and the .
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EC Asante, NK Pallegar, AJ Hoffmann, AM Viloria-Petit, SL Christian (2020) . International journal of molecular sciences 21 (17), 6439
Pallegar NK, Garland CJ, Mahendralingam M, Viloria-Petit AM, Christian SL*. (2019) J Mammary Gland Biol Neoplasia. 2019 Mar;24(1):85-97. doi: 10.1007/s10911-018-9420-4. Epub 2018 Nov 24.
Christian SL*, Pallegar NK, Brown RJ, and Viloria-Petit AM (2018) . PeerJ. 6:e4641 doi: 10.7717/peerj.4641