Survival Pathways Are Differently Affected by Microgravity in Normal and Cancerous Breast Cells

Monti, Noemi; Masiello, Maria Grazia; Proietti, Sara; Catizone, Angela; Ricci, Giulia; Harrath, Abdel Halim; Alwasel, Saleh H.; Cucina, Alessandra; Bizzarri, Mariano

doi:10.3390/ijms22020862

Open AccessArticle

Survival Pathways Are Differently Affected by Microgravity in Normal and Cancerous Breast Cells

by

Noemi Monti

^1,2,

Maria Grazia Masiello

³,

Sara Proietti

³,

Angela Catizone

⁴

,

Giulia Ricci

⁵

,

Abdel Halim Harrath

⁶

,

Saleh H. Alwasel

⁶,

Alessandra Cucina

^3,7

and

Mariano Bizzarri

^1,2,*

¹

Department of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy

²

Systems Biology Group Lab, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy

³

Department of Surgery “Pietro Valdoni”, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy

⁴

Department of Anatomy, Histology, Forensic-Medicine and Orthopedics, Section of Histology and Embryology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy

⁵

Department of Experimental Medicine, Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, 80138 Naples, Italy

⁶

Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia

⁷

Azienda Policlinico Umberto I, 00161 Rome, Italy

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22(2), 862; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22020862

Submission received: 22 December 2020 / Revised: 12 January 2021 / Accepted: 13 January 2021 / Published: 16 January 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microgravity and Space Medicine)

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Abstract

Metazoan living cells exposed to microgravity undergo dramatic changes in morphological and biological properties, which ultimately lead to apoptosis and phenotype reprogramming. However, apoptosis can occur at very different rates depending on the experimental model, and in some cases, cells seem to be paradoxically protected from programmed cell death during weightlessness. These controversial results can be explained by considering the notion that the behavior of adherent cells dramatically diverges in respect to that of detached cells, organized into organoids-like, floating structures. We investigated both normal (MCF10A) and cancerous (MCF-7) breast cells and found that appreciable apoptosis occurs only after 72 h in MCF-7 cells growing in organoid-like structures, in which major modifications of cytoskeleton components were observed. Indeed, preserving cell attachment to the substrate allows cells to upregulate distinct Akt- and ERK-dependent pathways in MCF-7 and MCF-10A cells, respectively. These findings show that survival strategies may differ between cell types but cannot provide sufficient protection against weightlessness-induced apoptosis alone if adhesion to the substrate is perturbed.

Keywords: microgravity; apoptosis; cytoskeleton; Akt; ERK; vinculin; survival pathways; space biomedicine

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MDPI and ACS Style

Monti, N.; Masiello, M.G.; Proietti, S.; Catizone, A.; Ricci, G.; Harrath, A.H.; Alwasel, S.H.; Cucina, A.; Bizzarri, M. Survival Pathways Are Differently Affected by Microgravity in Normal and Cancerous Breast Cells. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 862. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22020862

AMA Style

Monti N, Masiello MG, Proietti S, Catizone A, Ricci G, Harrath AH, Alwasel SH, Cucina A, Bizzarri M. Survival Pathways Are Differently Affected by Microgravity in Normal and Cancerous Breast Cells. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2021; 22(2):862. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22020862

Chicago/Turabian Style

Monti, Noemi, Maria Grazia Masiello, Sara Proietti, Angela Catizone, Giulia Ricci, Abdel Halim Harrath, Saleh H. Alwasel, Alessandra Cucina, and Mariano Bizzarri. 2021. "Survival Pathways Are Differently Affected by Microgravity in Normal and Cancerous Breast Cells" International Journal of Molecular Sciences 22, no. 2: 862. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22020862

APA Style

Monti, N., Masiello, M. G., Proietti, S., Catizone, A., Ricci, G., Harrath, A. H., Alwasel, S. H., Cucina, A., & Bizzarri, M. (2021). Survival Pathways Are Differently Affected by Microgravity in Normal and Cancerous Breast Cells. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 22(2), 862. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22020862

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Survival Pathways Are Differently Affected by Microgravity in Normal and Cancerous Breast Cells

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