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Glycosylation profiles of breast cancer cells may represent clonal variations of multiple organ metastases

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Abstract

Glycosylation changes of cancer cells are known to be associated with malignant progression and metastases and potentially determine the organ-selective nature of metastasis as theorized by Paget (Lancet 1:571–573, 1889). Cellular glycans play a variety of roles in the processes of metastasis and may be unique to the cells that metastasize to different organs. We analyzed the glycosylation profiles of the primary tumor and tumors metastasized to lymph node, liver, lung, brain, bone, thyroid, kidney, adrenal, small intestine and pancreas in an autopsy case of breast cancer employing a lectin microarray with 45 lectins. Clustering analysis of the data revealed that metastatic breast cancer cells were categorized into several clusters according to their glycosylation profiles. Our results provide a biological basis to understand differential phenotypes of metastatic breast cancer cells potentially reflecting clonal origin, which does not directly reflect genomic or genetic changes or microenvironmental effects but connects to glycosylation profiles.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to this patient and her family for consenting to the pathological autopsy. We also wish to thank the members of the Laboratory of Morphology and Image Analysis, Biomedical Research Core Facilities, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, for technical assistance.

Funding

Funding was provided by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (Grant No. JP19ae0101026) and by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (KAKENHI Grant No. 23K06748).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Breast Oncology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoshiya Horimoto, May Thinzar Hlaing, Mitsue Saito & Tatsuro Irimura

  2. Department of Human Pathology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoshiya Horimoto & Harumi Saeki

  3. Department of Breast Oncology and Surgery, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoshiya Horimoto

  4. Division of Glycobiologics, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8421, Japan

    Kaori Denda-Nagai, Katrin Ishii-Schrade, Haruhiko Fujihira, Miki Noji & Tatsuro Irimura

  5. Glycometabolic Biochemistry Laboratory, Cluster for Pioneering Research, RIKEN, Wako, Japan

    Haruhiko Fujihira

  6. Department of Pathology and Oncology, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan

    Masaaki Abe

  7. Division of Molecular Regulation of Inflammatory and Immune Diseases, Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan

    Shigeyuki Shichino

Authors
  1. Yoshiya Horimoto
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  2. May Thinzar Hlaing
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  3. Harumi Saeki
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  4. Kaori Denda-Nagai
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  5. Katrin Ishii-Schrade
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  6. Haruhiko Fujihira
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  7. Masaaki Abe
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  8. Miki Noji
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  9. Shigeyuki Shichino
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  10. Mitsue Saito
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  11. Tatsuro Irimura
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Contributions

Conceptualization: YH, TI; Methodology: KD-N, MN, HF, HS, MA; Formal analysis and investigation: MTH, YH; Statistical analysis: SS; Writing-original draft: TI, YH; Writing-review and editing: TI, KI-S, YH; Funding acquisition: TI, MS; Resources: MS, YH; Supervision: YH, TI. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tatsuro Irimura.

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Competing interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Ethical approval

Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Juntendo University Hospital (no. H19-0289).

Informed consent

Regarding informed consent, the patient could see the research plan on the website of the hospital and was offered the choice to opt out of the study at any time. Consent to the use of autopsy tumor tissue was obtained from the family of the deceased patient.

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Horimoto, Y., Hlaing, M.T., Saeki, H. et al. Glycosylation profiles of breast cancer cells may represent clonal variations of multiple organ metastases. Clin Exp Metastasis 41, 267–270 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-023-10253-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-023-10253-3

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