Effect of Fluid Shear Stress on Human Breast Cancer Cells

The importance of Hemodynamic forces such as interstitial and vascular Fluid Shear Stress (FSS), which are exposed to cancer cells, is not well understood. Here, we report that human breast cancer cells, MDA-MB-231, show increased cytosolic and nuclear area, nuclear flattening, focal adhesion and stress fiber formation in the presence of 6 dyn/cm2 orbital shear stress. Withdrawal of FSS restores the morphology within 12 hours. Time lapse video microscopy reveals that FSS pre-exposed cells migrate more slowly compared with the control cells which are not pre-exposed with FSS. Interestingly, when we seed these cells on soft agar plate, cells are able to grow, and the size of the colonies are significantly larger compared with the control cells. The transcriptional co-activator, responsive to biomechanical cues, YAP-1 translocates into nucleus in the presence of FSS. Altogether, these data suggest that FSS can change homeostasis of cancer cells to facilitate their survival. © FASEB.