NTU Undergraduates' research April 2014 - Biosciences | Page 115

THE EXPRESSION OF MMP13 AND TNRFSF9 IN MCF7 BREAST CANCER
STEM CELLS
by
Natalie Thompson
N0379252

Abstract
The struggle in attempting to create suitable, effective and universal therapeutics for
cancer is being promoted due to the presence of cell subpopulations within tumour
types. Individual subtypes will react differently to any therapy used in order to treat
them (Heppner and Dexter et al., 1978). These subpopulations arise from cancer
stem cells; these are malignant cells with the properties of stem cells, which are
essential in the perpetuating growth and development of tumours in humans
(Jordan and Guzman et al., 2006). In this study, the expression of two genes,
TNFRSF9 and MMP13 were investigated, in order to conclude whether they could be
possible markers for MCF7 cancer stem cells. This was carried out using a sphere
formation assay, RNA extraction, cDNA conversion and the use of RT-PCR. Our
findings showed that TNFRSF9 was expressed in both parental and sphere cells, but
was significantly less in spheres, however according to recent literature, our results
were false positives and were anomalous, this could have been to a number of
reasons. Our results also showed that MMP13 was expressed in both parental and
sphere cells, however much more significantly in sphere cells, this finding coincided
with recent literature, providing evidence that MMP13 could be a possible marker
for MCF7 breast cancer stem cells. This information could be very beneficial, and
may provide insight into new marker targets to allow for a better, faster cancer
diagnosis, and also for future cancer therapies.