Casbas-Hernandez Patricia, Fleming Jodie M, Troester Melissa A
Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7255, USA.
J Biomed Biotechnol. 2011;2011:520987. doi: 10.1155/2011/520987. Epub 2011 Dec 13.
The interactions between breast epithelium and stroma are fundamental to normal tissue homeostasis and for tumor initiation and progression. Gene expression studies of in vitro coculture models demonstrate that in vitro models have relevance for tumor progression in vivo. For example, stromal gene expression has been shown to vary in association with tumor subtype in vivo, and analogous in vitro cocultures recapitulate subtype-specific biological interactions. Cocultures can be used to study cancer cell interactions with specific stromal components (e.g., immune cells, fibroblasts, endothelium) and different representative cell lines (e.g., cancer-associated versus normal-associated fibroblasts versus established, immortalized fibroblasts) can help elucidate the role of stromal variation in tumor phenotypes. Gene expression data can also be combined with cell-based assays to identify cellular phenotypes associated with gene expression changes. Coculture systems are manipulable systems that can yield important insights about cell-cell interactions and the cellular phenotypes that occur as tumor and stroma co-evolve.
乳腺上皮与基质之间的相互作用对于正常组织稳态以及肿瘤的起始和进展至关重要。体外共培养模型的基因表达研究表明，体外模型与体内肿瘤进展相关。例如，已表明基质基因表达在体内会因肿瘤亚型而异，类似的体外共培养可重现亚型特异性生物学相互作用。共培养可用于研究癌细胞与特定基质成分（如免疫细胞、成纤维细胞、内皮细胞）的相互作用，不同的代表性细胞系（如癌症相关成纤维细胞与正常相关成纤维细胞以及已建立的永生化成纤维细胞）有助于阐明基质变异在肿瘤表型中的作用。基因表达数据还可与基于细胞的检测相结合，以识别与基因表达变化相关的细胞表型。共培养系统是可操控的系统，能够提供有关细胞间相互作用以及肿瘤与基质共同进化时出现的细胞表型的重要见解。
