Doxorubicin resistance mediated by cytoplasmic macrophage colony-stimulating factor is associated with switch from apoptosis to autophagic cell death in MCF-7 breast cancer cells

This study was to explore the effect of macrophage colony-stimulating factor on doxorubicin resistance in MCF-7 breast cancer cells and the possible mechanism. In the study, the human breast cancer cells, MCF-7, were transfected with macrophage colony-stimulating factor. We document that cytoplasmic macrophage colony-stimulating factor induces doxorubicin resistance and inhibits apoptosis in MCF-7 cells. Further studies demonstrated that cytoplasmic macrophage colony-stimulating factor-mediated apoptosis inhibition was dependent on the activation of PI3K/Akt/Survivin pathway. More importantly, we found that macrophage colony-stimulating factor-induced autophagic cell death in doxorubicin-treated MCF-7 cells. Taken together, we show for the first time that macrophage colony-stimulating factor-induced doxorubicin resistance is associated with the changes in cell death response with defective apoptosis and promotion of autophagic cell death.

Source: Experimental Biology and Medicine - November 7, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Zhang, M., Zhang, H., Tang, F., Wang, Y., Mo, Z., Lei, X., Tang, S. Tags: Pharmacology & amp;amp; Toxicology Source Type: research