模拟尿激酶型纤溶酶原激活剂(uPA)和循环肿瘤相关成纤维细胞(cCAFS)在乳腺癌细胞外渗中的作用。

Modeling the role of urokinase plasminogen activator, uPA, and circulating Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (cCAFS) in breast cancer cell extravasation.

作者信息

Spartz Angela, Schmidt Susan, Mohamed Fazila, Troness Benjamin, Lange Carol A, El-Ashry Dorraya

机构信息

University of Minnesota, Masonic Cancer Center, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.

University of Minnesota, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology, Oncology & Transplantation, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.

出版信息

bioRxiv. 2025 Jun 17:2025.06.11.659108. doi: 10.1101/2025.06.11.659108.

Abstract

Circulating Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts (cCAFs) have been discovered in circulating tumor cell clusters from all stages of disease progression in breast cancer patients. We have shown that CAFs promote lung metastases in the mouse tail vein model when they are clustered with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) MDA-MB231 cells. Following on this observation, we saw that MDA-MB231-luciferase labeled cells persist at higher levels when present in CAF23/MDA-MB231 co-clusters compared to MDA-MB231 mono-clusters within the first 3 days after tail vein injection. This prompted us to investigate whether CAFs aid cancer cell extravasation from capillary venules into the lung parenchyma, which would impart better survival and faster seeding of metastases. Ex vivo lung extravasation assays showed that within the first 8-24 hrs after tail vein injection, more cells from CAF23/MDA-MB231 co-clusters extravasated than cells from MDA-MB231 mono-clusters. Using in vitro endothelial binding assays, we determined that CAF/TNBC co-clusters bind to HUVEC endothelial cells better than TNBC mono-clusters. Single Cell RNA-seq identified several genes in the fibrinolysis pathway whose expression increases in TNBC cells when they are clustered with CAFs. One of these genes is , which encodes the urokinase-type plasminogen activator, uPA. siRNA knockdown of PLAU decreased in vitro TNBC-endothelial cell interactions and ex vivo extravasation of MDA-MB231 mono-clusters, revealing a role for uPA/PLAU in breast cancer cell extravasation. Our data helps to define the role of CAFs in breast cancer extravasation and highlights the importance of our previous work showing that CAFs promote tumor cell dissemination and metastasis.

摘要

在乳腺癌患者疾病进展的各个阶段的循环肿瘤细胞簇中都发现了循环癌相关成纤维细胞(cCAF)。我们已经表明,当CAF与三阴性乳腺癌(TNBC)MDA-MB231细胞聚集在一起时,它们在小鼠尾静脉模型中促进肺转移。基于这一观察结果,我们发现,与尾静脉注射后前3天内的MDA-MB231单簇相比,当存在于CAF23/MDA-MB231共簇中时,MDA-MB231荧光素酶标记的细胞以更高的水平持续存在。这促使我们研究CAF是否有助于癌细胞从小静脉血管外渗到肺实质中,这将赋予更好的存活率和更快的转移播种。体外肺外渗试验表明,在尾静脉注射后的最初8 - 24小时内,来自CAF23/MDA-MB231共簇的外渗细胞比来自MDA-MB231单簇的细胞更多。使用体外内皮细胞结合试验,我们确定CAF/TNBC共簇比TNBC单簇更好地结合人脐静脉内皮细胞(HUVEC)。单细胞RNA测序在纤维蛋白溶解途径中鉴定出几个基因,当TNBC细胞与CAF聚集时,这些基因的表达会增加。其中一个基因是PLAU,它编码尿激酶型纤溶酶原激活剂uPA。PLAU的siRNA敲低减少了体外TNBC与内皮细胞的相互作用以及MDA-MB231单簇的体外外渗,揭示了uPA/PLAU在乳腺癌细胞外渗中的作用。我们的数据有助于确定CAF在乳腺癌外渗中的作用,并突出了我们之前工作的重要性,即CAF促进肿瘤细胞的播散和转移。

https://cdn.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/blobs/6684/12262346/4104371d52d5/nihpp-2025.06.11.659108v1-f0001.jpg

文献AI研究员

20分钟写一篇综述,助力文献阅读效率提升50倍

立即体验

用中文搜PubMed

大模型驱动的PubMed中文搜索引擎

马上搜索