Knock-down of amphiregulin inhibits cellular invasion in inflammatory breast cancer.

We have previously shown that SUM-149 human breast cancer cells require an amphiregulin (AREG) autocrine loop for cell proliferation. We also demonstrated that AREG can increase epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) stability and promote EGFR localization to the plasma membrane. In the present studies we successfully knocked-down AREG expression in SUM-149 cells by lentiviral infection of AREG shRNA.

Altered EGFR localization and degradation in human breast cancer cells with an amphiregulin/EGFR autocrine loop.

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and its ligand amphiregulin (AR) have been shown to be co-over expressed in breast cancer. We have previously shown that an AR/EGFR autocrine loop is required for SUM149 human breast cancer cell proliferation, motility and invasion. We also demonstrated that AR can induce these altered phenotypes when expressed in the normal mammary epithelial cell line MCF10A, or by exposure of these cells to AR in the medium.