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Endometriotic Epithelial Cell Response to Macrophage-Secreted Factors is Dependent on Extracellular Matrix Context

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Abstract

Endometriosis is a chronic disease in which epithelial and stromal cells that resemble the eutopic endometrium are found in ectopic lesions. In order to examine how microenvironmental factors such as extracellular matrix (ECM) and macrophages influence disease progression, 12Z (an immortalized ectopic epithelial cell line) were cultured on tissue culture plastic or in gels of recombinant basement membrane (rBM) or collagen I. Unlike cells in other conditions, cells in rBM formed multi-cellular structures in a 67 kDa non-integrin laminin receptor (67LR)-dependent manner. To examine the impact of macrophage-secreted factors on cell behavior, 12Z cells on all three substrates were treated with conditioned media from differentiated THP-1 (an immortalized monocytic cell line). Significant proliferation and invasion was observed only with cells cultured in rBM, indicating that ECM cues help dictate cell response to soluble signals. Cells cultured on rBM were then treated with individual cytokines detected in the conditioned media, with increased proliferation observed following exposure to interleukin-8 (CXCL8/IL-8) and both increased proliferation and invasion following treatment with heparin-binding EGF-like growth factor (HB-EGF). This study suggests that rBM gels can be used to induce in vitro lesion formation in order to identify soluble factors that influence proliferation and invasion.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge Anthony Desotell and Danielle Bourgeois for help with the ErbB ligand ELISAs, Adriana Rodriguez for assistance with the proliferation experiments, Alex LaPerle for providing the ECM adsorption protocols, and the imaging assistance of the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Kristyn Masters and Dr. Brenda Ogle for use of the time-lapse microscope. Funding for this work was provided by NSF CBET-0951613 (P.K.K.), American Cancer Society RSG-13-026-01-CSM (P.K.K.), UW-Madison Graduate Research School Grant (P.K.K.), and a NSF GRFP (M.J.C.).

Conflict of interest

Kathryn Pollock, Taylor Jaraczewski, Molly J. Carroll, and Pamela Kreeger declare that they have no conflicts of interest. Dan Lebovic is part of a multi-center endometriosis trial for AbbVie Pharmaceuticals and has received a contribution from UpToDate, Inc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1550 Engineering Drive, ECB 2154, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Kathryn Pollock, Taylor J. Jaraczewski, Molly J. Carroll & Pamela K. Kreeger

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, 600 Highland Ave., Madison, WI, 53705, USA

    Dan I. Lebovic

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  1. Kathryn Pollock
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  2. Taylor J. Jaraczewski
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Correspondence to Pamela K. Kreeger.

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Associate Editor David Mooney oversaw the review of this article.

This paper is part of the 2014 Young Innovators Issue.

Kathryn Pollock and Taylor J. Jaraczewski have contributed equally to this work.

Pamela Kreeger earned a BS in Chemistry from Valparaiso University and a PhD in Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University, where she was a NDSEG fellow. In her thesis work in the laboratories of Dr. Lonnie Shea and Dr. Teresa Woodruff, she developed a novel 3D culture system for ovarian follicles. She went on to an American Cancer Society post-doctoral fellowship in Dr. Doug Lauffenburger’s laboratory at MIT, where she utilized multivariate analysis tools to examine the impact of RAS mutations in colon cancer. Dr. Kreeger began as an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2009. Her lab utilizes tools from systems biology and tissue engineering to determine how the interactions between multiple components of the disease microenvironment influence cellular phenotypic decisions. She is the recipient of a NSF CAREER award, is an American Cancer Society Research Scholar, and was named a 2014 Emerging Investigator by Chemical Communications (Photo credit: David Nevala Photography).

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Pollock, K., Jaraczewski, T.J., Carroll, M.J. et al. Endometriotic Epithelial Cell Response to Macrophage-Secreted Factors is Dependent on Extracellular Matrix Context. Cel. Mol. Bioeng. 7, 409–420 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12195-014-0339-6

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