Biology subjects

MacLean, P. S.

Publications and source records attributed to MacLean, P. S..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Targeting the menopause transition with metformin improves breast cancer outcomes, but discontinuation has deleterious effects on metabolic health: Findings from a preclinical model of postmenopausal breast cancer.

BackgroundWomen with obesity and/or type-II-diabetes have an increased breast cancer risk, increased metastasis, and poorer prognosis, especially after menopause. In a rat model of high-fat-diet and menopause-induced weight gain, we previously reported that treatment with the anti-diabetic drug metformin for 8-weeks after ovariectomy (OVX; modeling menopause) reduced growth of existing mammary tumors and inhibited new tumor formation. This identified the menopause transition as a potential window-of-opportunity for interventions to decrease obesity-associated breast cancer incidence and disease progression. Here, we extend these findings to determine if limiting metformin to the peak window of OVX-induced weight gain would have similar anti-cancer effects. FindingsMetformin during the first four weeks following OVX is critical to reducing tumor burden, as rats treated with metformin early (weeks0-4-postOVX) had reduced tumor burden. Conversely, initiating metformin later in the postOVX period (weeks 4-8postOVX) did not reduce cancer burden. Despite improved tumor outcomes, metformin withdrawal after the early postOVX time had detrimental metabolic effects, including weight gain and increased adiposity, insulin, IGF1, and HOMA-IR, which correlate with increased cancer risk. ConclusionsThese data reveal early-postmenopause as a critical window when metformin decreases progression of existing disease and highlights the importance of maintaining treatment to prevent metabolic dysregulation, which could promote secondary tumors/metastasis. These findings also help explain the disconnect between epidemiological studies reporting anticancer benefits of metformin and more recent clinical trials that failed to see similar efficacy, potentially due to issues of timing and/or inclusion of women outside the early postmenopausal window and/or without underlying metabolic dysfunction.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2021

Preventing ovariectomy-induced weight gain decreases tumor burden in rodent models of obesity and postmenopausal breast cancer.

Obesity and adult weight gain are linked to increased breast cancer risk and poorer clinical outcomes in postmenopausal women, particularly for hormone-dependent tumors. Menopause is a time when significant weight gain occurs in many women, and clinical and preclinical studies have identified menopause (or ovariectomy) as a period of vulnerability for breast cancer development and promotion. We hypothesized that preventing weight gain after ovariectomy (OVX) may be sufficient to prevent the formation of new tumors and decrease growth of existing mammary tumors. Here, we tested this hypothesis in a rat model of obesity and carcinogen-induced postmenopausal mammary cancer and validated our findings in a murine xenograft model with implanted human tumors. In both models, preventing weight gain after OVX significantly decreased obesity-associated tumor development and growth. Importantly, we did not induce weight loss in these animals, but simply prevented weight gain. In both lean and obese rats, preventing weight gain reduced visceral fat accumulation and associated insulin resistance. Similarly, the intervention decreased circulating tumor-promoting growth factors and inflammatory cytokines (ie, BNDF, TNF, FGF2), with greater effects in obese compared to lean rats. In obese rats, preventing weight gain decreased adipocyte size, adipose tissue macrophage infiltration, reduced expression of the tumor-promoting growth factor FGF-1, and reduced phosphorylated FGFR in tumors. Together, these findings suggest that the underlying mechanisms associated with the anti-tumor effects of weight maintenance are multifactorial, and that weight maintenance during the peri-/post-menopausal period may be a viable strategy for reducing obesity-associated breast cancer risk and progression in women.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Breast cancer endocrine therapy exhausts adipocyte progenitors promoting weight gain and glucose intolerance

Breast cancer survivors treated with anti-estrogen therapies report weight gain and have an elevated risk of type 2 diabetes. Here, we show that current tamoxifen use associated with larger breast adipocyte diameter only in women with a BMI >30 kg/m2. To understand the mechanisms behind these clinical findings, we investigated the impact of estrogen deprivation and tamoxifen in a relevant pre-clinical model of obesity. Specifically, mature female mice were housed at thermoneutrality and fed either a low-fat/low-sucrose (LFLS) or a high-fat/high-sucrose (HFHS) diet. Consistent with the high expression of Esr1 observed in single-cell RNA sequencing of mesenchymal stem cells from adipose tissue, endocrine therapies induced adipose accumulation and preadipocyte expansion, but resulted in adipocyte progenitor depletion only in the context of HFHS. Consequently, 7-week endocrine therapy supported adipocyte hypertrophy and was associated with hepatic steatosis, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and glucose intolerance, particularly in HFHS fed females. Metformin or pioglitazone, glucose lowering drugs used to treat diabetes, prevented the effects of tamoxifen but not estrogen deprivation on adipocyte size and insulin resistance in HFHS-fed mice. This translational study suggests that endocrine therapies act via ER to directly disrupt adipocyte progenitors and support adipocyte hypertrophy, leading to ectopic lipid deposition that may promote hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Interventions that target insulin action should be considered for some women receiving life-saving endocrine therapies for breast cancer.

physiology↗