2. Academic Validation
  3. Cholesteryl Ester Promotes Mammary Tumor Growth in MMTV-PyMT Mice and Activates Akt-mTOR Pathway in Tumor Cells

Cholesteryl Ester Promotes Mammary Tumor Growth in MMTV-PyMT Mice and Activates Akt-mTOR Pathway in Tumor Cells

  • Biomolecules. 2021 Jun 8;11(6):853. doi: 10.3390/biom11060853.
Lengyun Wei 1 2 3,  Xuyang Lu 1 2 3,  Shengmei Weng 1 2,  Shenglong Zhu 1 2,  Yongquan Chen 1 2 3
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Wuxi School of Medicine, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
  • 2 Wuxi Translational Medicine Research Center and Jiangsu Translational Medicine Research Institute Wuxi Branch, Wuxi 214122, China.
  • 3 School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
PMID: 34201030 DOI: 10.3390/biom11060853
Abstract

The association between intratumoral cholesteryl ester (CE) and tumor progression has been reported previously. The objective of our study was to investigate a causal effect of CE on mammary tumor progression. Using MMTV-PyMT (MMTV-polyoma virus middle T) transgenic mice and breast tumor cell MCF-7, we show that both exogenous and endogenous CE can increase mammary tumor growth, that CE upregulates the Akt/mTOR pathway, and that CE synthesis blockade suppresses this signaling pathway. Our data suggest that SOAT1, a sterol O-acyltransferase, may be a potential target for the treatment of breast Cancer.

Keywords

SOAT1; avasimibe; breast cancer; cholesteryl ester.

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