Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring cancer among women in the United States. As with all other cancer types, breast cancer formation is the result of alterations in tumor suppressor genes, which regulate diverse cellular activities to prevent tumor development, and oncogenes, which promote tumor formation. In this study, we further characterized two candidate breast cancer tumor suppressor genes, MTUS2 and LHX8, and their role in breast cancer development. Soft agar assays showed that the knockdown of MTUS2 and LHX8 in MCF10AT cells led to increased colony formation compared to non-silencing control. Furthermore, through q-RT-PCR analysis, we found that the relative mRNA expression of MTUS2 and LHX8 is down-regulated in a panel of breast cancer cell lines compared to the pre-malignant breast epithelial cell line MCF10AT. Finally, when we ectopically expressed MTUS2 or LHX8 in MCF7 cells it resulted in slower proliferation of the cells compared to an empty vector control. Taken together, these results provide further information concerning the roles MTUS2 and LHX8 play in breast tumorigenesis. This study implicates two breast cancer tumor suppressor genes, which can provide a unique tool for identifying novel pathways involved in the formation of breast cancer.

Citation Format: Diane Fru, Victoria Ruhl, Michael R. Green. Characterizing candidate breast cancer tumor suppressors: MTUS2 and LHX8. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr B29.

Note: This abstract was withdrawn after the Proceedings was printed and was not presented at the conference.

©2012 American Association for Cancer Research.
2012