College of Pharmacy, Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, China.
J Clin Invest. 2022 Oct 3;132(19):e157399. doi: 10.1172/JCI157399.
Vessel co-option has been demonstrated to mediate colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRCLM) resistance to antiangiogenic therapy. The current mechanisms underlying vessel co-option have mainly focused on "hijacker" tumor cells, whereas the function of the "hijackee" sinusoidal blood vessels has not been explored. Here, we found that the occurrence of vessel co-option in bevacizumab-resistant CRCLM xenografts was associated with increased expression of fibroblast activation protein α (FAPα) in the co-opted hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), which was dramatically attenuated in HSC-specific conditional Fap-knockout mice bearing CRCLM allografts. Mechanistically, bevacizumab treatment induced hypoxia to upregulate the expression of fibroblast growth factor-binding protein 1 (FGFBP1) in tumor cells. Gain- or loss-of-function experiments revealed that the bevacizumab-resistant tumor cell-derived FGFBP1 induced FAPα expression by enhancing the paracrine FGF2/FGFR1/ERK1/-2/EGR1 signaling pathway in HSCs. FAPα promoted CXCL5 secretion in HSCs, which activated CXCR2 to promote the epithelial-mesenchymal transition of tumor cells and the recruitment of myeloid-derived suppressor cells. These findings were further validated in tumor tissues derived from patients with CRCLM. Targeting FAPα+ HSCs effectively disrupted the co-opted sinusoidal blood vessels and overcame bevacizumab resistance. Our study highlights the role of FAPα+ HSCs in vessel co-option and provides an effective strategy to overcome the vessel co-option-mediated bevacizumab resistance.
血管重摄取已被证明介导结直肠癌肝转移(CRCLM)对抗血管生成治疗的耐药性。目前血管重摄取的机制主要集中在“劫持”肿瘤细胞上,而“劫持者”窦状血管的功能尚未被探索。在这里,我们发现贝伐单抗耐药的 CRCLM 异种移植瘤中血管重摄取的发生与被重摄取的肝星状细胞(HSCs)中纤维母细胞激活蛋白α(FAPα)的表达增加有关,在携带 CRCLM 同种异体移植物的 HSC 特异性条件性 Fap 敲除小鼠中,这种表达显著减弱。在机制上,贝伐单抗治疗诱导缺氧上调肿瘤细胞中成纤维细胞生长因子结合蛋白 1(FGFBP1)的表达。增益或缺失功能实验表明,贝伐单抗耐药肿瘤细胞来源的 FGFBP1 通过增强 HSCs 中的旁分泌 FGF2/FGFR1/ERK1/-2/EGR1 信号通路诱导 FAPα表达。FAPα促进 HSCs 中 CXCL5 的分泌,激活 CXCR2 促进肿瘤细胞的上皮-间充质转化和髓系来源抑制细胞的募集。这些发现进一步在源自 CRCLM 患者的肿瘤组织中得到验证。靶向 FAPα+HSCs 可有效破坏被重摄取的窦状血管并克服贝伐单抗耐药性。我们的研究强调了 FAPα+HSCs 在血管重摄取中的作用,并为克服血管重摄取介导的贝伐单抗耐药性提供了一种有效的策略。