Extracellular Vesicle Transfer from Endothelial Cells Drives VE-Cadherin Expression in Breast Cancer Cells, Thereby Causing Heterotypic Cell Contacts

Abstract

Cadherins mediate cohesive contacts between isotypic cells by homophilic interaction and prevent contact between heterotypic cells. Breast cancer cells neighboring endothelial cells (ECs) atypically express vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin. To understand this EC-induced VE-cadherin expression in breast cancer cells, MCF7 and MDA-MB-231 cells expressing different endogenous cadherins were co-cultured with ECs and analyzed for VE-cadherin at the transcriptional level and by confocal microscopy, flow cytometry, and immunoblotting. After losing their endogenous cadherins and neo-expression of VE-cadherin, these cells integrated into an EC monolayer without compromising the barrier function instantly. However, they induced the death of nearby ECs. EC-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) contained soluble and membrane-anchored forms of VE-cadherin. Only the latter was re-utilized by the cancer cells. In a reporter gene assay, EC-adjacent cancer cells also showed a juxtacrine but no paracrine activation of the endogenous VE-cadherin gene. This cadherin switch enabled intimate contact between cancer and endothelial cells in a chicken chorioallantoic membrane tumor model showing vasculogenic mimicry (VM). This EV-mediated, EC-induced cadherin switch in breast cancer cells and the neo-expression of VE-cadherin mechanistically explain the mutual communication in the tumor microenvironment. Hence, it may be a target to tackle VM, which is often found in breast cancers of poor prognosis.