Abstract
Transforming growth factor (TGF)-β is known to have properties of both a tumour suppressor and a tumour promoter. While it inhibits cell proliferation, it also increases cell motility and decreases cell–cell adhesion. Coupling mathematical modelling and experiments, we investigate the growth and motility of oncogene-expressing human mammary epithelial cells under exposure to TGF-β. We use a version of the well-known Fisher–Kolmogorov equation, and prescribe a procedure for its parametrisation. We quantify the simultaneous effects of TGF-β to increase the tendency of individual cells and cell clusters to move randomly and to decrease overall population growth. We demonstrate that in experiments with TGF-β treated cells in vitro, TGF-β increases cell motility by a factor of 2 and decreases cell proliferation by a factor of 1/2 in comparison with untreated cells.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the NCI Integrative Cancer Biology Program (U54 CA113007), K22 CA109590 (AMW), K99 CA125892 (SEW), R01 CA80195 (CLA), R01 CA62212 (CLA), Breast Cancer Specialised Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) P50 CA98131, and the Vanderbilt Integrative Cancer Biology Centre (VICBC). The authors thank Dr Vito Quaranta for support.
Notes
1. These authors contributed equally to this study.