Study on the mechanism of low shear stress restoring the viability of damaged breast tumor cells

Blood vessel is one of the ‘pathways’ for cancer to metastasize, in which cells are exposed to the fluid shear stress. Although most cells are damaged by fluid shear stress, a small number of tumor cells survive and metastasize when they are exposed to low shear stress (LSS) of tiny capillary. It is important to study the survival state of damaged cells during LSS. In this study, high shear stress (HSS) was applied to simulate the blood circulation and damage cells. The viability and mitochondrial function of cells were detected after HSS and LSS loading, respectively. Further, the expression of mitochondrial related proteins and genes were detected by western blot and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction, respectively. The role of cytochrome c (Cyt C) was also verified in this process. The experimental results showed that the viability of HSS damaged cells was increased significantly when they were exposed to LSS subsequently. The function of mitochondria was improved via reducing the release of Cyt C by LSS during this process. This study is expected to provide potential target for suppressing hematogenous metastasis. •LSS recovers the viability of damaged cells.•LSS restores the viability via improving the mitochondrial function of cells.•LSS improves mitochondrial function via suppressing cytochrome c in damaged cells.