scholarly journals Profiling site-specific cell states of Ewing Sarcoma xenografts in zebrafish

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dagan Segal ◽  
Hanieh Mazloom-Farsibaf ◽  
Bo-Jui Chang ◽  
Philippe Roudot ◽  
Mikako Warren ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Ewing Sarcoma ◽  
Metastatic Potential ◽  
Functional Adaptation ◽  
Surrounding Tissue ◽  
Specific Cell ◽  
Learning Approaches ◽  
Fish Embryo ◽  
Cell Shapes ◽  
Specific Tissue

A key challenge in cancer research is to identify functional cell states as they relate to specific tissue microenvironments. In this work, we present a quantitative high-resolution imaging assay of cancer cell morphology in zebrafish xenografts to probe functional adaptation to variable cell extrinsic cues and molecular interventions. We focus on Ewing Sarcoma, a pediatric cancer driven by a single oncogenic fusion protein EWSR1-FLI1, and with little to no additional somatic mutations, making it a prototypical form of cancer whose adaptation is likely driven by acute, non-genomic mechanisms. By applying machine learning approaches to 3D cell shapes, we find systematic shifts in the distribution of cell morphological states between seeding sites in the fish embryo, as well as between cells with differential expression of EWSR1-FLI1 in an environmentally sensitive fashion. We propose a model where Ewing Sarcoma cancer cell plasticity is sensitive both to expression fluctuation of EWSR1-FLI1 and signals from the surrounding tissue microenvironment, with either or both factors possibly contributing to metastatic potential.

scholarly journals Rigid tumors contain soft cancer cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Fuhs ◽  
Franziska Wetzel ◽  
Anatol Fritsch ◽  
Xinzhi Li ◽  
Roland Stange ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Cells ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Primary Tumor ◽  
Single Cells ◽  
Tissue Level ◽  
Surrounding Tissue ◽  
Primary Tumors ◽  
Tumor Mass ◽  
Cell Clusters ◽  
Cell Shapes

Abstract Palpation, as already mentioned in the ancient Egyptian medical text Ebers Papyrus, utilizes that solid tumors are stiffer than the surrounding tissue. However, cancer cell lines tend to soften, which may intuitively foster invasion by enhancing the ability of cancer cells to squeeze through dense tissue. This paradox raises questions besides the oxymoron itself: Does softness emerge from adaptation to the external microenvironment? Or are soft cells already present inside a rigid primary tumor mass to support cancer cell unjamming? We investigate primary tumor explants from patients with breast and cervix carcinomas on multiple length scales from the tissue level down to single cells. We find that primary tumors are highly heterogeneous in their mechanical properties. From the tissue level this heterogeneity persists down to the scale of individual cells in cancer cell clusters, resulting in a broad distribution of cell rigidities with a higher fraction of softer, more squeezable cells. Plus, squeezed cell shapes correlate with cancer cell motility. Mechanical modelling based on patient data reveals that a tumor mass as a whole is able to maintain a rigid, solid behavior even when it contains a significant fraction of very soft cells. Cell softening induced cancer cell unjamming generates heterogeneous cancer cell clusters with a solid backbone of rigid cells surrounded by soft motile cells.

Nanorobots Sense Local Physiochemical Heterogeneities of Tumor Matrisome

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debayan Dasgupta ◽  
Dharma Pally ◽  
Deepak K. Saini ◽  
Ramray Bhat ◽  
Ambarish Ghosh
Keyword(s):  
Cell Lines ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Cancer Cell Lines ◽  
Adhesive Force ◽  
Surrounding Tissue ◽  
Quantitative Measurements ◽  
Malignant Breast Tumor ◽  
Malignant Breast ◽  
Cancer Dissemination

The dissemination of cancer is brought about by continuous interaction of malignant cells with their surrounding tissue microenvironment. Understanding and quantifying the remodeling of local extracellular matrix (ECM) by invading cells can therefore provide fundamental insights into the dynamics of cancer dissemination. In this paper, we use an active and untethered nanomechanical tool, realized as magnetically driven nanorobots, to locally probe a 3D tissue culture microenvironment consisting of cancerous and non-cancerous epithelia, embedded within reconstituted basement membrane (rBM) matrix. Our assay is designed to mimic the in vivo histopathological milieu of a malignant breast tumor. We find that nanorobots preferentially adhere to the ECM near cancer cells: this is due to the distinct charge conditions of the cancer-remodeled ECM. Surprisingly, quantitative measurements estimate that the adhesive force increases with the metastatic ability of cancer cell lines, while the spatial extent of the remodeled ECM was measured to be approximately 40 μm for all cancer cell lines studied here. We hypothesized and experimentally confirmed that specific sialic acid linkages specific to cancer-secreted ECM may be a major contributing factor in determining this adhesive behavior. The findings reported here can lead to promising applications in cancer diagnosis, quantification of cancer aggression, in vivo drug delivery applications, and establishes the tremendous potential of magnetic nanorobots for fundamental studies of cancer biomechanics.

scholarly journals Coexpression of CAV-1, AT1-R and FOXM1 in prostate and breast cancer and normal cell lines and their influence on metastatic properties

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karolina Kowalska ◽  
Magdalena Nowakowska ◽  
Kamila Domińska ◽  
Agnieszka W. Piastowska-Ciesielska
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cell Line ◽  
Cell Lines ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Breast Cancer Cell ◽  
Normal Cell ◽  
Metastatic Potential ◽  
Cancer Cell Lines ◽  
Breast Cancer Cell Lines ◽  
Prostate Cell

The aim of this study was to evaluate the coexpression of caveolin-1 (CAV-1), angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1-R) and forkhead box Ml (FOXM1) in prostate and breast cancer cell lines, in comparison with normal cell lines. CAV-1, AT1-R and FOXM1 expression was determined by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis in the prostate cancer cell lines PC3, DU145 and LNCaP; prostate normal cell line PNT1A; breast cancer cell lines MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231; and the normal breast cell line 184A1. A correlation between the expression levels of the investigated genes and their metastatic properties was determined by the Spearman's rank test (P<0.05) and Aspin-Welsch t-test, respectively. In prostate cell lines, a significant correlation was noted between CAV-1 and AT1-R expression and between FOXM1 and CAV-1 expression. A correlation between the expression levels of the investigated genes and their metastatic potential was also observed, with relatively high expression of all the investigated genes in the normal prostate cell line PNT1A. In comparison to prostate cancer cell lines, an adverse dependency between CAV-1, AT1-R, FOXM1 expression and metastatic potential was observed in the breast cancer cell lines. Relatively high expression of all tested genes was observed in the normal breast cell line 184A1, which was decreasing respectively with increasing metastatic potential of breast cancer cell lines. The results obtained here indicate that CAV-1, FOXM1 and AT1-R may be potential markers of tumorigenesis in certain types of cancer in vitro.

Tea Catechin Synergies in Inhibition of Cancer Cell Proliferation and of a Cancer Specific Cell Surface Oxidase (ECTO-NOX)

2003 ◽  
Vol 92 (5) ◽  
pp. 234-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. James Morré ◽  
Dorothy M. Morré ◽  
Howard Sun ◽  
Raymond Cooper ◽  
Joseph Chang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cell Proliferation ◽  
Cell Surface ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Specific Cell ◽  
Cancer Cell Proliferation ◽  
Specific Cell Surface

scholarly journals Mitotic arrest affects clustering of tumor cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Bonnet ◽  
Lise Rigal ◽  
Odile Mondesert ◽  
Renaud Morin ◽  
Gaelle Corsaut ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Circulating Tumor Cells ◽  
Cancer Cell ◽  
Cell Aggregation ◽  
Metastatic Potential ◽  
Mitotic Arrest ◽  
Chemotherapeutic Agents ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mcf 7

Abstract Background Cancer cell aggregation is a key process involved in the formation of tumor cell clusters. It has recently been shown that clusters of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have an increased metastatic potential compared to isolated circulating tumor cells. Several widely used chemotherapeutic agents that target the cytoskeleton microtubules and cause cell cycle arrest at mitosis have been reported to modulate CTC number or the size of CTC clusters. Results In this study, we investigated in vitro the impact of mitotic arrest on the ability of breast tumor cells to form clusters. By using live imaging and quantitative image analysis, we found that MCF-7 cancer cell aggregation is compromised upon incubation with paclitaxel or vinorelbine, two chemotherapeutic drugs that target microtubules. In line with these results, we observed that MCF-7 breast cancer cells experimentally synchronized and blocked in metaphase aggregated poorly and formed loose clusters. To monitor clustering at the single-cell scale, we next developed and validated an in vitro assay based on live video-microscopy and custom-designed micro-devices. The study of cluster formation from MCF-7 cells that express the fluorescent marker LifeAct-mCherry using this new assay allowed showing that substrate anchorage-independent clustering of MCF-7 cells was associated with the formation of actin-dependent highly dynamic cell protrusions. Metaphase-synchronized and blocked cells did not display such protrusions, and formed very loose clusters that failed to compact. Conclusions Altogether, our results suggest that mitotic arrest induced by microtubule-targeting anticancer drugs prevents cancer cell clustering and therefore, could reduce the metastatic potential of circulating tumor cells.

scholarly journals The HIV-1 Transgenic Rat: Relevance for HIV Noninfectious Comorbidity Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1643
Author(s):  
Frank Denaro ◽  
Francesca Benedetti ◽  
Myla D. Worthington ◽  
Giovanni Scapagnini ◽  
Christopher C. Krauss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neuronal Degeneration ◽  
Cell Types ◽  
Transgenic Rat ◽  
Specific Cell ◽  
Rat Tissues ◽  
Local Production ◽  
Specific Tissue ◽  
Effective Models ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Hiv 1

HIV noninfectious comorbidities (NICMs) are a current healthcare challenge. The situation is further complicated as there are very few effective models that can be used for NICM research. Previous research has supported the use of the HIV-1 transgenic rat (HIV-1TGR) as a model for the study of HIV/AIDS. However, additional studies are needed to confirm whether this model has features that would support NICM research. A demonstration of the utility of the HIV-1TGR model would be to show that the HIV-1TGR has cellular receptors able to bind HIV proteins, as this would be relevant for the study of cell-specific tissue pathology. In fact, an increased frequency of HIV receptors on a specific cell type may increase tissue vulnerability since binding to HIV proteins would eventually result in cell dysfunction and death. Evidence suggests that observations of selective cellular vulnerability in this model are consistent with some specific tissue vulnerabilities seen in NICMs. We identified CXCR4-expressing cells in the brain, while specific markers for neuronal degeneration demonstrated that the same neural types were dying. We also confirm the presence of gp120 and Tat by immunocytochemistry in the spleen, as previously reported. However, we observed very rare positive cells in the brain. This underscores the point that gp120, which has been reported as detected in the sera and CSF, is a likely source to which these CXCR4-positive cells are exposed. This alternative appears more probable than the local production of gp120. Further studies may indicate some level of local production, but that will not eliminate the role of receptor-mediated pathology. The binding of gp120 to the CXCR4 receptor on neurons and other neural cell types in the HIV-1TGR can thus explain the phenomena of selective cell death. Selective cellular vulnerability may be a contributing factor to the development of NICMs. Our data indicate that the HIV-1TGR can be an effective model for the studies of HIV NICMs because of the difference in the regional expression of CXCR4 in rat tissues, thus leading to specific organ pathology. This also suggests that the model can be used in the development of therapeutic options.

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