Modulation of inter-organ signalling in obese mice by spontaneous physical activity during mammary cancer development

Accumulative evidence links breast cancer development to excess weight and obesity. During obesity, dysregulations of adipose tissue induce an increase in pro-inflammatory adipokine secretions, such as leptin and oestrogen secretions. Furthermore, a raise in oxidative stress, along with a decrease in antioxidant capacity, induces and maintains chronic inflammation, which creates a permissive environment for cancer development. Physical activity is recommended as a non-pharmacological therapy in both obese and cancer situations. Physical activity is associated with a moderation of acute inflammation, higher antioxidant defences and adipokine regulation, linked to a decrease of tumour-cell proliferation. However, the biological mechanisms underlying the relationship between oxidative stress, low-grade inflammation, carcinogenesis, obesity and physical activity are poorly understood. Our study is based on old, ovariectomised mice (C57BL/6J mice, 33 weeks old), fed with a high fat diet which increases adipose tissue favouring overweight and obesity, and housed in either an enriched environment, promoting physical activity and social interactions, or a standard environment constituting close to sedentary conditions. Our model of mammary carcinogenesis allowed for the exploration of tissue secretions and signalling pathway activation as well as the oxidative status in tumours to clarify the mechanisms involved in a multiple factorial analysis of the data set. The multiple factorial analysis demonstrated that the most important variables linked to moderate, spontaneous physical activity were the increase in growth factor (epithelial growth factor (EGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)) and the activation of the signalling pathways (STAT3, c-jun n-terminal kinases (JNK), EKR1/2, nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB)) in the gastrocnemius (G). In inguinal adipose tissue, the NF-κB inflammation pathway was activated, increasing the IL-6 content. The adiponectin plasma (P) level increased and presented an inverse correlation with tumour oxidative status. Altogether, these results demonstrated that spontaneous physical activity in obesity conditions could slow down tumour growth through crosstalk between muscle, adipose tissue and tumour. A spontaneous moderate physical activity was able to modify the inter-organ exchange in a paracrine manner. The different tissues changed their signalling pathways and adipokine/cytokine secretions, such as adiponectin and leptin, resulting in a decrease in anti-oxidative response and inflammation in the tumour environment. This model showed that moderate, spontaneous physical activity suppresses tumour growth via a dialogue between the organs close to the tumour.