Lou Emil, Gholami Sepideh, Romin Yevgeniy, Thayanithy Venugopal, Fujisawa Sho, Desir Snider, Steer Clifford J, Subramanian Subbaya, Fong Yuman, Manova-Todorova Katia, Moore Malcolm A S
Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology, and Transplantation, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA; Integrative Biology and Physiology Program, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Surgical Oncology Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10021, USA.
Trends Cancer. 2017 Oct;3(10):678-685. doi: 10.1016/j.trecan.2017.08.001. Epub 2017 Sep 14.
Intercellular communication is a vital yet underdeveloped aspect of cancer pathobiology. This Opinion article reviews the importance and challenges of microscopic imaging of tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) in the complex tumor microenvironment. The use of advanced microscopy to characterize TNTs in vitro and ex vivo, and related extensions called tumor microtubes (TMs) reported in gliomas in vivo, has propelled this field forward. This topic is important because the identification of TNTs and TMs fills the gap in our knowledge of how cancer cells communicate at long range in vivo, inducing intratumor heterogeneity and resistance to treatment. Here we discuss the concept that TNTs/TMs fill an important niche in the ever-changing microenvironment and the role of advanced microscopic imaging to elucidate that niche.
细胞间通讯是癌症病理生物学中一个至关重要但尚未充分发展的方面。这篇观点文章综述了在复杂肿瘤微环境中对隧道纳米管（TNTs）进行显微成像的重要性和挑战。使用先进显微镜在体外和离体条件下对TNTs进行表征，以及在体内胶质瘤中报道的相关延伸结构即肿瘤微管（TMs），推动了该领域的发展。这个主题很重要，因为TNTs和TMs的识别填补了我们在了解癌细胞如何在体内进行长距离通讯、诱导肿瘤内异质性和治疗抗性方面的知识空白。在这里，我们讨论TNTs/TMs在不断变化的微环境中占据重要生态位的概念，以及先进显微成像在阐明该生态位方面的作用。
