Molecular mechanisms of type I collagen-induced apoptosis in breast carcinoma cells

Objective: As invading breast carcinoma cells breach the underlying basement membrane, they become confronted with a dense three-dimensional reactive stroma dominated by type I collagen. To develop metastatic capabilities, invading tumour cells must acquire the capacity to negotiate this hostile microenvironment. By enmeshing cells in a dense fibrillar network, type I collagen acts as a physical barrier for cell migration as well as an endogenous antigrowth signal, partly by inducing apoptosis in epithelial cells. Aberrant cell survival resulting from an acquired resistance toward apoptosis represents a prominent hallmark of cancers. However, the molecular mechanisms implicated in collagen-induced apoptosis remain poorly defined. Here, we investigate the molecular mechanisms by which type I collagen induces apoptosis in breast carcinoma cells and identify MMP-14, a membrane-anchored matrix metalloproteinase, as a key anti-apoptotic factor.
Methods: To investigate the induction of apoptosis by collagen, human breast adenocarcinoma MCF-7 cells overexpressing or not MMP-14 were plated on plastic plates or embedded within three dimensional type I collagen gels (Col3D). Cell death was evaluated by measuring cytoplasmic histone-associated DNA fragments (Cell Death Detection ELISA). The percentage of cells with an apoptotic nuclear morphology was also determined. The interactions between cancer cells and Col3D were analyzed by confocal microscopy and the impact of Col3D on the transcriptome of cancer cells was investigated using Illumina HT-12 BeadArrays.
Results: When cultured within Col3D gels, MCF-7 cells displayed a round morphology and a cell death characterized by a Z-VAD-FMK-dependent chromatin condensation, nuclear segmentation and oligonucleosomal DNA fragmentation was induced. Transfection of MCF-7 cells with MMP-14 cDNA promoted the interactions between cells and collagen and prevented apoptosis. A transcriptomic analysis revealed that culturing MCF-7 cells within Col3D altered the expression of about 700 genes, irrespective of MMP-14 expression. Col3D modulated the expression of several apoptosis-related genes. Interestingly, MMP-14 activity was sufficient to prevent the Col3D-dependent induction of Bcl2-Interacting Killer (BIK), a pro-apoptotic member of the Bcl-2 family.
Conclusions: Our results shed light on the molecular mechanisms by which a collagen-rich microenvironment triggers apoptosis in invading breast cancer cells. Furthermore, we demonstrate that MMP-14 promotes tumour progression by circumventing apoptosis.