Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States.
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States.
Elife. 2022 Feb 14;11:e73796. doi: 10.7554/eLife.73796.
The pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma microenvironment is composed of a variety of cell types and marked by extensive fibrosis and inflammation. Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) are abundant, and they are important mediators of disease progression and invasion. TAMs are polarized in situ to a tumor promoting and immunosuppressive phenotype via cytokine signaling and metabolic crosstalk from malignant epithelial cells and other components of the tumor microenvironment. However, the specific distinguishing features and functions of TAMs remain poorly defined. Here, we generated tumor-educated macrophages (TEMs) in vitro and performed detailed, multiomic characterization (i.e., transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics). Our results reveal unique genetic and metabolic signatures of TEMs, the veracity of which were queried against our in-house single-cell RNA sequencing dataset of human pancreatic tumors. This analysis identified expression of novel, metabolic TEM markers in human pancreatic TAMs, including ARG1, ACLY, and TXNIP. We then utilized our TEM model system to study the role of mutant Kras signaling in cancer cells on TEM polarization. This revealed an important role for granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and lactate on TEM polarization, molecules released from cancer cells in a mutant Kras-dependent manner. Lastly, we demonstrate that GM-CSF dysregulates TEM gene expression and metabolism through PI3K-AKT pathway signaling. Collectively, our results define new markers and programs to classify pancreatic TAMs, how these are engaged by cancer cells, and the precise signaling pathways mediating polarization.
胰腺导管腺癌的微环境由多种细胞类型组成,其特征是广泛的纤维化和炎症。肿瘤相关巨噬细胞(TAMs)丰富,它们是疾病进展和侵袭的重要介质。TAMs 通过细胞因子信号和来自恶性上皮细胞和肿瘤微环境其他成分的代谢串扰在原位极化成为促进肿瘤和免疫抑制的表型。然而,TAMs 的具体特征和功能仍未得到明确界定。在这里,我们在体外生成了肿瘤诱导的巨噬细胞(TEMs),并进行了详细的多组学表征(即转录组学、蛋白质组学、代谢组学)。我们的结果揭示了 TEMs 的独特遗传和代谢特征,这些特征通过我们内部的人类胰腺肿瘤单细胞 RNA 测序数据集进行了验证。该分析鉴定了人类胰腺 TAMs 中新型代谢 TEM 标志物的表达,包括 ARG1、ACLY 和 TXNIP。然后,我们利用我们的 TEM 模型系统研究了癌细胞中突变 Kras 信号对 TEM 极化的作用。这揭示了粒细胞-巨噬细胞集落刺激因子(GM-CSF)和乳酸在 TEM 极化中的重要作用,这些分子是癌细胞以突变 Kras 依赖性方式释放的。最后,我们证明 GM-CSF 通过 PI3K-AKT 通路信号失调 TEM 的基因表达和代谢。总之,我们的研究结果定义了新的标志物和程序来分类胰腺 TAMs、这些标志物如何被癌细胞募集,以及介导极化的确切信号通路。
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