MDA-MB-175-VII Cells

MDA-MB-175-VII is a human breast cancer cell line originally derived from the pleural effusion of an adult female patient with infiltrating ductal mammary carcinoma. The cell line is part of a series established from metastatic breast tumors to provide viable, fibroblast-poor epithelial cultures. Specifically, MDA-MB-175 was isolated from six of eight thoracenteses performed on a patient who underwent mastectomy and exhibited recurrent malignant pleural effusions. The tumor cells were consistently viable and cultured successfully across samples, which provided a stable platform for in vitro studies of metastatic breast cancer biology.

MDA-MB-175-VII cells are morphologically epithelial and have a modal chromosome number of approximately 49, reflecting an aneuploid karyotype. These cells exhibit relatively slow growth in vitro but have gained scientific interest due to their unique molecular features, including the expression of neuregulin-1 (NRG1) fusion transcripts. In particular, the NRG1-DOC4 fusion observed in this line leads to constitutive activation of the HER3/HER4 receptor pathway, promoting autocrine signaling and cell proliferation. This molecular characteristic has positioned MDA-MB-175-VII as a rare but critical model for studying autocrine HER-family receptor signaling and its pharmacological targeting in breast cancer .

Further integration into large-scale datasets such as the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) has enabled deeper molecular profiling of MDA-MB-175-VII. These datasets include transcriptomic, mutational, and proteomic information that support the classification of the cell line within the luminal subtype of breast cancers, with modest sensitivity to agents targeting HER-family receptors and PI3K signaling pathways. As such, MDA-MB-175-VII serves as a valuable model for preclinical investigations of targeted therapies and the functional consequences of oncogenic gene fusions in breast cancer.