Department of Gynecologic and Breast Pathology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and American Registry of Pathology, Washington, DC 20306-6000, USA.
Int J Biol Sci. 2010 Mar 9;6(2):129-32. doi: 10.7150/ijbs.6.129.
Our previous studies revealed that leukocyte infiltration could trigger breast and prostate tumor invasion through physical disruption of tumor capsules. Our current study, involving multiple types of human tumors, further suggests that leukocyte infiltration also triggers metastasis through the following pathways : 1) the physical movement into the epithelium disrupts inter-cellular junctions and surface adhesion molecules, which cause the disassociation of tumor cells from tumor cores, 2) some of these tumor cells subsequently form tight junctions with the plasma membranes of leukocytes creating tumor cell-leukocyte chimeras (TLCs), and 3) the leukocytes of TLCs impart migratory capacity to associated tumor cell partners. Our findings suggest a novel pathway for tumor cell dissemination from primary sites and journey to new sites.
我们之前的研究表明，白细胞浸润可以通过物理破坏肿瘤包膜触发乳腺和前列腺肿瘤的侵袭。我们目前的研究涉及多种类型的人类肿瘤，进一步表明白细胞浸润还通过以下途径触发转移：1）物理运动进入上皮组织破坏细胞间连接和表面粘附分子，导致肿瘤细胞从肿瘤核心解离；2）其中一些肿瘤细胞随后与白细胞的质膜形成紧密连接，形成肿瘤细胞-白细胞嵌合体（TLC）；3）TLC 中的白细胞赋予相关肿瘤细胞伙伴迁移能力。我们的研究结果提示了肿瘤细胞从原发部位扩散并转移到新部位的新途径。
