Kisspeptin signalling pathway in breast cancer biology

The composite data used to compile the PhD thesis titled 'the Kisspeptin signalling pathway and its role in breast cancer biology'. This data was also used for a published article titled 'Lack of oestrogen receptor expression in breast cancer cells does not correlate with Kisspeptin signalling and migration,  International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2022, 23(15), 8744.

The data is aimed at shedding light on the ability of Kisspeptin to induce cell signalling related to metastasis in two triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell lines. The non-metastatic BT-20 and the metastatic MDA-MB-231 TNBC cell lines were selected as they have very different migratory and metastatic characteristics. Western blot analysis was used to investigate extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) and protein kinase B (Akt/PKB) phosphorylation, and β-arrestin1/2 expression. Calcium signalling was measured using Fluo-3 AM, cell proliferation was measured using resazurin, and cell migration was assessed using an Oris™ migration assay. It was found that ERK1/2 and Akt phosphorylation and calcium mobilisation occurred in the BT-20 cell line after Kisspeptin-10 (KP-10) stimulation. ERK1/2 phosphorylation occurred late, in a β-arrestin-dependent manner. In contrast, only Akt phosphorylation and calcium mobilisation occurred in MDA-MB-231 cells after stimulation with KP-10. KP-10 increased migration in a calcium-dependent manner in the MDA-MB-231 cell line. KP-10 did not increase cell proliferation in either cell line. These data suggest that in these two related cell lines different signalling and physiological outcomes are initiated after KP-10 stimulation. The data also suggest that Kisspeptin and KISS1R may not play a pro-metastatic role in all ER- breast cancers.