Shiozawa Yusuke, Taichman Russell S
Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, University of Michigan School of Dentistry, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
Bonekey Rep. 2012 Mar 1;2012(1). doi: 10.1038/bonekey.2012.48.
"Cancer" is a disease that can spread to the other organs over time. The prognosis of cancer patients with metastasis is generally poor. Accordingly, there is an urgent need to establish a greater understanding of metastatic processes. It is highly likely that cancer stem cells () are the key cells that mediate metastases, even while the cellular origin of CSCs remains unknown. Growing evidence has also revealed that the microenvironment has profound effects on the regulation of CSCs. Recently, it has been shown that bone metastatic cancer cells target the microenvironment or 'niche' which houses hematopoietic stem cells (). The major function of the HSC niche is to maintain 'stemness' of HSCs. These findings suggest that by targeting the HSC niche metastatic cells parasitize the very foundation of hematopoiesis to maintain their stemness. These observations suggest that there will be a need to target the HSC niche to provide effective therapies to eradicate metastatic CSCs.
“癌症”是一种会随着时间扩散到其他器官的疾病。发生转移的癌症患者预后通常较差。因此，迫切需要更深入地了解转移过程。癌症干细胞（）很可能是介导转移的关键细胞，尽管癌症干细胞的细胞起源尚不清楚。越来越多的证据还表明，微环境对癌症干细胞的调控有深远影响。最近有研究表明，骨转移癌细胞靶向容纳造血干细胞（）的微环境或“生态位”。造血干细胞生态位的主要功能是维持造血干细胞的“干性”。这些发现表明，转移细胞通过靶向造血干细胞生态位寄生在造血的基础上以维持其干性。这些观察结果表明，需要靶向造血干细胞生态位以提供有效的疗法来根除转移性癌症干细胞。
