Why do researchers apply different cancer cell lines for their research purposes?
I know that the cell lines differ in "invasiveness" potentials, but what does this mean? for example what is the difference between MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231?
MCF-7 is an ER+ PR+ HER2- breast ductal carcinoma cell line which corresponds to a relatively less aggressive hormone responsive breast cancer (better prognosis)
MDA-MB-231 triple negative breast adenocarcinoma cell line (from metastatic site) which corresponds to a more aggressive, highly metastatic breast cancer (poor prognosis)
So if you are targeting estrogen receptor it makes sense to use MCF-7 while it would be pointless to use these cell lines if you are working with Trastuzumab which targets HER- (neither cell lines rely on this protein for their survival)
If you wanna work metastasis or aggressive cancer you should go with MDA
There are many more examples like those
MCF-7 is an ER+ PR+ HER2- breast ductal carcinoma cell line which corresponds to a relatively less aggressive hormone responsive breast cancer (better prognosis)
MDA-MB-231 triple negative breast adenocarcinoma cell line (from metastatic site) which corresponds to a more aggressive, highly metastatic breast cancer (poor prognosis)
So if you are targeting estrogen receptor it makes sense to use MCF-7 while it would be pointless to use these cell lines if you are working with Trastuzumab which targets HER- (neither cell lines rely on this protein for their survival)
If you wanna work metastasis or aggressive cancer you should go with MDA
There are many more examples like those
In addition to what Ali Burak has added, Researchers if want to see the effect of any drug or treatment in reference to the expression of different markers, the study on two or more cell lines make it a valid data. In other words the application or treatment should be applicable on more then one group within the same malignancy.
Dear Hanie,
It has been shown that breast cancer cell lines constitute a constellation of different expression subsets, as is the case with primary tumors. These different cell lines elicit heterogeneous responses to targeted therapeutic agents. These responses seem to mirror clinical observations. This may be one of the reasons that different breast cancer cell lines are opted for research.
This link might be of interest (collection of 51 breast cancer cell lines). A collection of breast cancer cell lines for the study of functionally distinct cancer subtypes. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730521/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ccr.2006.10.008
Choosing the right cell line for breast cancer research.
http://www.breast-cancer-research.com/content/pdf/bcr2889.pdf
The Ali answer is complete. It is important to note that MDA-MB-231 did not express the FGFR receptor.
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