Effect of pro-inflammatory cytokine stimulation on human breast cancer: implications of chemokine receptor expression in cancer metastasis.

Interactions between tumour cells and microenvironments may affect their growth and metastasis formation. In search for a better understanding of the role of cellular mediators in the progression of cancer, we investigated the effect of pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-6, TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma on the regulation of expression of chemokine receptors CXCR4, CXCR2, CX3CR1, CCR9, and CCR5 in the human breast cancer cell line MCF-7. Our results showed that IL-1 increased CXCR4 expression whereas TNF-alpha increased CX3CR1, CCR9 and CCR5. Interestingly, this regulation was not homogeneous, emphasizing the inherent heterogeneity in cancer that may be responsive to specific inflammatory microenvironments.