Role of PI3K/Akt on migration and invasion of MCF10A cells treated with extracellular vesicles from MDA-MB-231 cells stimulated with linoleic acid.

In breast cancer cells, the linoleic acid (LA), an ω-6 essential polyunsaturated fatty acid, induces a variety of biological processes, including migration and invasion. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are structures released by normal and malignant cells into extracellular space, and their function is dependent on their cargo and the cell type from which are secreted. Particularly, the EVs from MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells treated with LA promote an epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT)-like process in mammary non-tumorigenic epithelial cells MCF10A. Here, we found that EVs isolated from supernatants of MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells stimulated with 90 μM LA induces activation of Akt2, FAK and ERK1/2 in MCF10A cells. In addition, EVs induces migration through a PI3K, Akt and ERK1/2-dependent pathway, whereas invasion is dependent on PI3K activity.