Klin Onkol. 2021 Spring;34(3):202-210. doi: 10.48095/ccko2021202.
Within the tumour microenvironment, tumour cells are exposed to different mechanical stimuli such as compression stress, cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix traction forces, interstitial fluid pressure, and shear stress. Cells actively sense and process this information by the mechanism of mechanotransduction to make decisions about their growth, motility, and differentiation. Indeed, the mechanical properties of the tumour microenvironment can deeply influence the behaviour of cancer cells and promote cancerogenesis. During tumour progression, desmoplasia arises and a positive feedback loop between the stiffening extracellular matrix and the properties enabling tumour expansion is established. Tumour cells can use mechanic stimuli to promote proliferation, increase their migratory and invasive potential, and induce therapeutic resistance. Mechanobio-logy is a progressive multidisciplinary field which studies how mechanical forces influence the behaviour of cells or tissues and may provide some interesting targets for cancer therapy.
In this review, we discuss the mechanical properties of cancer cells and describe the tumour promoting effect of the transformed extracellular matrix. We propose that the differences in the mechanobio-logy of cells and extracellular matrix are significant enough to facilitate tumorigenesis and may provide interesting targets for cancer therapy.
在肿瘤微环境中，肿瘤细胞会受到不同的机械刺激，如压缩应力、细胞-细胞和细胞-细胞外基质牵引力、细胞间质压力和切应力。细胞通过机械转导机制积极感知和处理这些信息，从而做出关于生长、运动和分化的决策。事实上，肿瘤微环境的机械特性可以深刻影响癌细胞的行为并促进癌症发生。在肿瘤进展过程中，出现了间质增生，细胞外基质变硬和促进肿瘤扩张的特性之间形成了正反馈循环。肿瘤细胞可以利用力学刺激来促进增殖、增加迁移和侵袭潜能，并诱导治疗抵抗。机械生物学是一个不断发展的多学科领域，研究力学如何影响细胞或组织的行为，并可能为癌症治疗提供一些有趣的靶点。
在这篇综述中，我们讨论了癌细胞的力学特性，并描述了转化细胞外基质对肿瘤的促进作用。我们提出，细胞和细胞外基质的机械生物学差异足以促进肿瘤发生，并可能为癌症治疗提供有趣的靶点。
