Chronic ethanol exposure enhances the aggressiveness of breast cancer: the role of p38γ

Both epidemiological and experimental studies suggest that ethanol may enhance aggressiveness of breast cancer. We have previously demonstrated that short term exposure to ethanol (12-48 hours) increased migration/invasion in breast cancer cells overexpressing ErbB2, but not in breast cancer cells with low expression of ErbB2, such as MCF7, BT20 and T47D breast cancer cells. In this study, we showed that chronic ethanol exposure transformed breast cancer cells that were not responsive to short term ethanol treatment to a more aggressive phenotype. Chronic ethanol exposure (10 days - 2 months) at 100 (22 mM) or 200 mg/dl (44 mM) caused the scattering of MCF7, BT20 and T47D cell colonies in a 3-dimension culture system. Chronic ethanol exposure also increased colony formation in an anchorage-independent condition and stimulated cell invasion/migration. Chronic ethanol exposure increased cancer stem-like cell (CSC) population by more than 20 folds. Breast cancer cells exposed to ethanol in vitro displayed a much higher growth rate and metastasis in mice. Ethanol selectively activated p38 gamma MAPK and RhoC but not p38 alpha/beta in a concentration-dependent manner. SP-MCF7 cells, a derivative of MCF7 cells which compose mainly CSC expressed high levels of phosphorylated p38 gamma MAPK. Knocking-down p38 gamma MAPK blocked ethanol-induced RhoC activation, cell scattering, invasion/migration and ethanol-increased CSC population. Furthermore, knocking-down p38 gamma MAPK mitigated ethanol-induced tumor growth and metastasis in mice. These results suggest that chronic ethanol exposure can enhance the aggressiveness of breast cancer by activating p38 gamma MAPK/RhoC pathway.