Promoting effects of adipose-derived stem cells on breast cancer cells are reversed by radiation therapy.

Partial breast irradiation of early breast cancer patients after lumpectomy and the use of endogenous adipose tissue (AT) for breast reconstruction are promising applications to reduce the side effects of breast cancer therapy. This study tries to investigate the possible risks associated with these therapeutic approaches. It also examines the influence of adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) as part of the breast cancer microenvironment, and endogenous AT on breast cancer cells following radiation therapy. ADSCs, isolated from human reduction mammoplasties of healthy female donors, exhibited multilineage capacity and specific surface markers. The promoting effects of ADSCs on the growth and survival fraction of breast cancer cells were reversed by treatment with high (8 Gy) or medium (2 Gy) radiation doses. In addition, a suppressing influence on breast cancer growth could be detected by co-culturing with irradiated ADSCs (8 Gy). Furthermore the clonogenic survival of unirradiated tumor cells was reduced by medium of irradiated ADSCs. In conclusion, radiation therapy changed the interactions of ADSCs and breast cancer cells. On the basis of our work, the importance of further studies to exclude potential risks of ADSCs in regenerative applications and radiotherapy has been emphasized.