Characterization of EpCAM-Positive and EpCAM-Negative Tumor Cells in Early-Stage Breast Cancer
Most studies on CTCs have focused on isolating cells that express EpCAM. In this study, we emphasize the presence of EpCAM-negative and EpCAM<sup>low</sup> CTCs, in addition to EpCAM<sup>high</sup> CTCs, in early BC. We evaluated stem cell markers (CD44/CD24 and CD133) and EMT markers (N-cadherin) in each subpopulation. Our findings indicate that all stemness variants were present in both EpCAM<sup>high</sup> and EpCAM-negative CTCs, whereas only one variant of stemness (nonCD44+CD24-/CD133+) was observed among EpCAM<sup>low</sup> CTCs. Nearly all EpCAM<sup>high</sup> CTCs were represented by CD133+ stem cells. Notably, the hybrid EMT phenotype was more prevalent among EpCAM-negative CTCs. scRNA-seq of isolated CTCs and primary tumor partially confirmed this pattern. Therefore, further investigation is imperative to elucidate the prognostic significance of EpCAM-negative and EpCAM<sup>low</sup> CTCs.
Authors
- Е. Yu. Garbukov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6016-7078)
- Л. А. Таширева (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2061-8417)
- Evgeny V. Denisov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2923-9755)
- М. А. Vostrikova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0256-5342)
- Anna Yu. Kalinchuk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2106-3513)
- М. V. Zavyalova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9429-9813)
- В. В. Алифанов
- V. М. Perelmuter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7633-9620)
- O. E. Savelieva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0301-8455)
- Н. В. Чердынцева (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1526-9013)
- Evgeniya S. Grigoryeva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4737-8951)
- Olga Bragina (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5281-7758)
- Elena S. Andryuhova
- Ivan A. Patskan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4437-6583)
Institutions
- Russian Academy of Sciences (RU)
- Tomsk National Research Medical Center (RU)
Publication Details
- Journal
- International Journal of Molecular Sciences
- Published
- 2024-10-16
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms252011109
- Citations
- 10
- Primary Topic
- Cancer Cells and Metastasis
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.83
Funders
- Russian Science Foundation