Skin and Endothelium Research Division, Department of Dermatology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Nat Commun. 2024 Nov 8;15(1):9678. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-53908-9.
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play a key role in cancer progression and treatment outcome. This study dissects the intra-tumoral diversity of CAFs in basal cell carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma using molecular and spatial single-cell analysis. We identify three distinct CAF subtypes: myofibroblast-like RGS5+ CAFs, matrix CAFs (mCAFs), and immunomodulatory CAFs (iCAFs). Large-cohort tissue analysis reveals significant shifts in CAF subtype patterns with increasing malignancy. Two CAF subtypes exhibit immunomodulatory properties via different mechanisms. mCAFs sythesize extracellular matrix and may restrict T cell invasion in low-grade tumors via ensheathing tumor nests, while iCAFs are enriched in late-stage tumors, and express high levels of cytokines and chemokines to aid immune cell recruitment and activation. This is supported by the induction of an iCAF-like phenotype with immunomodulatory functions in primary healthy fibroblasts exposed to skin cancer cell secretomes. Thus, targeting CAF variants holds promise to enhance immunotherapy efficacy in skin cancers.
癌症相关成纤维细胞(CAFs)在癌症进展和治疗结果中起着关键作用。本研究使用分子和空间单细胞分析方法,剖析了基底细胞癌、鳞状细胞癌和黑色素瘤中 CAFs 的肿瘤内异质性。我们鉴定出三种不同的 CAF 亚型:肌成纤维细胞样 RGS5+ CAFs、基质 CAFs(mCAFs)和免疫调节 CAFs(iCAFs)。大规模组织分析显示,随着恶性程度的增加,CAF 亚型模式发生了显著变化。两种 CAF 亚型通过不同的机制表现出免疫调节特性。mCAFs 合成细胞外基质,并通过包裹肿瘤巢可能限制低级别肿瘤中 T 细胞的浸润,而 iCAFs 在晚期肿瘤中富集,并表达高水平的细胞因子和趋化因子,以辅助免疫细胞募集和激活。这一发现得到了以下证据的支持:在原发性健康成纤维细胞暴露于皮肤癌细胞分泌组后,诱导具有免疫调节功能的 iCAF 样表型。因此,针对 CAF 变体有望提高皮肤癌的免疫治疗效果。
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