Mesenchymal-epithelial transition reduces proliferation but increases immune evasion in tumor spheroids

The data corresponds to experiments performed with MET-inducible models of MDA-MB-231 and ES-2 mesenchymal cell lines. These were modified to contain an inducible plasmid that codes for miR-200c and miR-141 that upon overexpression trigger the expression of epithelial features. In the first place, the collection contains transcriptomic and proteomic data suchs as RNA seq data, q-PCR data, western-blot data, and immunofluorescence of EMT markers, that were all used to characterize our models. Moving forwards, with these two models we performed proliferation assays in adherent and 3D cultures of different nature. In adherent cultures, we looked at the effect of MET on proliferation focusing on the regulation exhorted by mechanical signals such as cell-cell junctions, spread area and their influence on contact inhibition of proliferation. Most of the data acquired from these experiments were obtained by image analysis of immunofluorescent microscopy. To measure proliferation changes in 3D cultures, we cultured cells in PEG-heparin hydrogels at both degradable and non-degradable forms. This gave rise to tumor spheroids were we quantified different parameters to assess proliferation levels. Moreover, we used pharmacologycal inhibitors to study the effect of focal adhesion and actomyosin cytoskeletal signaling in the proliferation of these tumor spheroids, culture in control and MET-inducing conditions. The data from these experiments was as well obtained from image analysis from fluorescent microscopy. Furthermore, we performed co-cultures of tumor spheroids with peripheral blood mononuclear cells and quantified the changes in apoptosis in the tumor cells, both by image analysis from immunofluorescent microscopy and flow cytometry.