Investigation into the sensitivity of adipocytes mediated by the major vault protein (MVP) to chemotherapy for triple-negative breast cancer.

Background: Chemotherapy is an important therapeutic method for treating triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), and docetaxel is the most commonly used chemotherapy drug for TNBC. Fat cells may increase the aggressiveness of TNBC and reduce the therapeutic effect of docetaxel. This research aimed to examine the mechanisms underlying the reduced chemosensitivity of TNBC to docetaxel.

Methods: Cell migration and invasion experiments revealed that breast cancer cells cocultured with mature adipocytes had increased invasive and migratory capabilities, and decreased sensitivity to docetaxel chemotherapy. Immunofluorescence and Western blot analyses revealed the significant upregulation of major vault protein (MVP) expression in the cocultured breast cancer cells.

Results: Our findings indicated that docetaxel effectively inhibited the proliferation, migration, and invasion of the MDA-MB231 cells. The optimal therapeutic concentration for the MDA-MB231 cells was 1,000 nM, and the optimal treatment duration was 48 hours.

Conclusions: The level of MVP expression appears to influence the chemosensitivity of breast cancer cells to docetaxel. Notably, our results suggest that cocultured breast cancer cells may modulate MVP expression via the Notch1 signaling pathway. Overall, this study provides evidence that adipocytes could influence the chemosensitivity of TNBC cells to docetaxel via MVP expression.