The role of lipoprotein lipase in the growth and progression of breast cancer

Tobin, Alexandria J. (2020) The role of lipoprotein lipase in the growth and progression of breast cancer. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is an extracellular lipase that hydrolyzes triglycerides and phospholipids from circulating lipoproteins to promote the delivery of hydrolyzed lipids to cells. LPL is highly expressed in the adipose tissue surrounding breast tumors and reported to be expressed in breast cancer cells. The hydrolysis products generated by LPL are used by cells as components of the cell membrane, as an energy supply, and as signaling molecules. Therefore, the presence of LPL on or around cancer cells may contribute to the growth and progression of breast cancer tumors. We hypothesized that the hydrolysis products generated by LPL from lipoproteins can promote increased cell viability and pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion from breast cancer cells. My results show that the lipoprotein hydrolysis products generated by LPL from total lipoproteins significantly increased the metabolic activity of multiple breast cancer cell lines and the normal MCF10A breast cell line. Using cytokine arrays, a significant increase in the secretion of some cytokines and chemokines of 2- to 10-fold was observed in MDA-MB-231 cells treated with lipoprotein hydrolysis products compared to control. In contrast, MCF-7 cells showed a decrease in the secretion of fewer cytokines. These results were verified by ELISA. The results of this study provide information on how LPL within the tumor microenvironment could affect breast cancer cell viability to potentially influence the progression of breast cancer.

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