Cancer cells in order to transfer, must first from the tumor and around its surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM) out of, to do this, cancer cells need to be elongated into a torpedo shape of cells. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and the Wistar Institute in the latest study have found that the physical forces exerted between these cells and ECM can drive this shape change, suggesting that drugs targeting ECM toughness can be used to prevent cancer metastasis.
The results of this study published in the "National Academy of Sciences" (PNAS) magazine.
The cells and tissues around the tumor are collectively referred to as tumor microenvironment (TME), which is closely related to the occurrence, growth and expansion of cancer. Extracellular matrix (ECM) is also part of the study shows that cancer cells from the primary tumor metastasis, the need to form a temporary invasive pseudopodia to break through the surrounding ECM connective tissue, like Is breaking through a tough net.
In the latest article, the study group led by Professor Vivek Shenoy of the University of Pennsylvania described in detail the feedback mechanism of cancer cells and surrounding ECM, explaining how cancer cells break through collagen fibers in ECM. "We have found that cancer cells Phenotypic changes in the mechanical factors, which is the first quantitative analysis of cancer cells from tumor invasion when the shape, "Shenoy said.
Researchers have suggested that the key factor in this interaction is finding a "best breakthrough point" in the tough network of ECM.
"If the cells in the tumor are sticky, if there is no collagen fibers on the ECM pull these cells, they can not interrupt the adhesion between them, but if the ECM sticky is too strong, the pull force is too large, the pores in the matrix will become Too narrow, cancer cells can not break out, "Shenoy said.
Researchers use computers to simulate these interactions, and then in the laboratory to match the experiment to see if the results are effective. "We used melanoma tumors embedded in the collagen matrix as a 3D model to simulate the events that occurred in vivo when the cancer cells left the primary tumor and attack other tissues in vitro, and our observations exactly matched the computer model and supplemented it. The study further demonstrates that the microenvironment of the tumor has a critical effect on coordinating the fate of the cancer cells, determining the prognosis, and treating the treatment, from the perspective of mechanical biology, "said Ashani Weeraratna, another author of the article.
Cancer Mechanical biology will also provide new information for the diagnosis and potential treatment of cancer. The future may be through the observation of changes outside the tumor, you can understand whether cancer cells will spread.
Researchers at the Vanderbilt University in 2015 at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) annual meeting, the extracellular matrix (ECM) can help tumor cell metastasis, "for the migration of cancer cells to build a through the extracellular matrix of high-speed highway".
Using confocal imaging techniques, the researchers observed that CAFs rearranged fibronectin into parallel bundles rather than typical dense mesh shapes that were generally seen in ECM. They spread the cancer cells on the extracellular matrix derived from CAFs, and also spread the cancer cells on the normal fibroblast-derived extracellular matrix as a control, and found that the cancer cells could be more easily perforated by CAFs trail of. And the researchers also found a difference in the activity of CAFs and normal fibroblasts in GTPase Ras, which were involved in cell migration and were involved in how cells obtained energy from motor protein myosin II.
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