Cancer Microenvironment : Official Journal of the International Cancer Microenvironment Society

Ovarian cancer (OC) ascites is an inflammatory and immunosuppressive tumor environment characterized by the presence of various cytokines, chemokines and growth factors. The presence of high concentrations of these cytokines/chemokines in ascites is associated with a more aggressive tumor phenotype. IL-10 is an immunosuppressive cytokine for which high expression has been associated with poor prognosis in some cancers. However, its role on OC tumor cells has not been explored. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to elucidate the role of ascites IL-10 on the proliferation, migration and survival of OC cell lines...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Exosomes are microvesicles released by cells in both physiological and pathological situations. They are surrounded by a lipid bilayer with proteins derived from the origin cell, and contain a variety of molecules, such as nucleic acids. They represent an emerging mechanism of intercellular communication, and they play an important role in the pathogenesis of cancer, stimulating proliferation and aggressiveness of cancer cells, inducing a microenvironment favorable to tumor development and controlling immune responses...

Within the tumour stroma, a heterogeneous population of cell types reciprocally regulates cell proliferation, which considerably affects the progression of the disease. In this study, using tumour conditioned medium (TCM) derived from breast tumour cell lines - MCF7 and MDA MB 231, we have demonstrated the differentiation of adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADSCs) into tumour-associated fibroblasts (TAFs). Since the Wnt signalling pathway is a key signalling pathway driving breast tumour growth, the effect of the Wnt antagonist secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (sFRP4) was also examined...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

The development of cancer involves an intricate process, wherein many identified and unidentified factors play a role. Tumor angiogenesis, growth of new blood vessels, is one of the major prerequisites for tumor growth as tumor cells rely on adequate oxygen and nutrient supply as well as the removal of waste products. Growth factors including VEGF orchestrate the development of angiogenesis. In addition, nervous system via the release of neurotransmitters contributes to tumor angiogenesis. The nervous system governs functional activities of many organs, and, as tumors are not independent organs within an organism, this system is integrally involved in tumor growth and progression via regulating tumor angiogenesis...

The incidence of differentiated thyroid cancer has been increasing. Nevertheless, its molecular mechanisms are not well understood. In recent years, extracellular nucleotides and nucleosides have emerged as important modulators of tumor microenvironment. Extracellular ATP is mainly hydrolyzed by NTPDase1/CD39 and NTPDase2/CD39L1, generating AMP, which is hydrolyzed by ecto-5'-nucleotidase (CD73) to adenosine, a possible promoter of tumor growth and metastasis. There are no studies evaluating the expression and functionality of these ectonucleotidases on normal or tumor-derived thyroid cells...

We assessed pancreatic cancer, lymphocyte infiltrates with a computational genomics approach. We took advantage of tumor-specimen exome files available from the cancer genome atlas to mine T- and B-cell immune receptor recombinations, using highly efficient, scripted algorithms established in several previous reports. Surprisingly, the results indicated that pancreatic cancer exomes represent one of the highest level yields for immune receptor recombinations, significantly higher than two comparison cancers used in this study, head and neck and bladder cancer...

We developed a scripted algorithm, based on previous, earlier editions of the algorithm, to mine prostate cancer exome files for T-cell receptor (TcR) recombination reads: Reads representing TcR gene recombinations were identified in 497 prostate cancer exome files from the cancer genome atlas (TCGA). As has been reported for melanoma, co-detection of productive TcR-α and TcR-β recombination reads correlated with an RNA expression signature representing T-cell exhaustion, particularly with high RNA levels for PD-1 and PD-L1, in comparison to several different control sets of samples...

Involvement of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) in the pathogenesis of urothelial carcinoma elects them to be sensitive marker for clinical and prognostic implications. MMPs regulate tumor growth and invasion by inducing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) which is characterized by the complex reprogramming of epithelial cells and ultimately bring about major changes in the structural organization of bladder urothelium. The present study has been undertaken to evaluate the clinical relevance of MMPs in two distinct types of bladder cancer disease...

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the most lethal gynecological malignancy, and the lack of chemoresistance biomarkers contributes to the poor prognosis. Cancer stem cells (CSC) have been investigated in EOC to understand its relationship with chemoresistance and recurrence. In this context, in vitro cultivation-models are important tools for CSC studies. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) play key roles in cancer, CSC regulation and apoptosis. Thus, this study aims to evaluate the tumorsphere model as CSC-enrichment method in EOC studies and investigate apoptosis-related miRNAs in tumorspheres-derived EOC cell lines...

Cancer-derived exosomes are constitutively produced and secreted into the blood and biofluids of their host patients providing a liquid biopsy for early detection and diagnosis. Given their ubiquitous nature, cancer exosomes influence biological mechanisms that are beneficial to the tumor cells where they are produced and the microenvironment in which these tumors exist. Accumulating evidence suggests that exosomes transport proteins, lipids, DNA, mRNA, miRNA and long non coding RNA (lncRNA) for the purpose of cell-cell and cell-extracellular communication...

Activator protein (AP) -1 is a transcription factor, plays important role in cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. Analysis of tumor cells grown on ex vivo 4D lung cancer model shows increase in components of AP-1, c-Fos and c-Jun in circulating tumor cells (CTC) compared to primary tumor. Our aim was to determine whether the AP-1 inhibitor SR11302 reduces metastatic lesion formation in the 4D model. Human lung cancer cell lines A549, H1299, and H460 were grown in the 4D model and treated with SR11302 (1 μM)...

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a significant process in the invasion and metastasis of cancers including oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and the cadherin switch has been identified as one of the hallmarks of EMT. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the significance of the cadherin switch in the prognosis of OSCC and generate a model for prognostic predictions. Seventy-six biopsy and/or initial surgical specimens from OSCC patients were immunohistochemically analyzed for the expression of E-cadherin and N-cadherin in either overall OSCC cells in tumor nests or in OSCC cells at the invasive front...

HPV infected cervical cells secrete mediators that are gradually changed and have influence on infiltrating M2 phenotypic monocytes in cervical lesions. However, profiles of circulating immune cells in women with cervical lesions and M2 phenotypic monocyte activity in HPV infected cervical lesions are limited. This study aimed to investigate circulating monocyte populations correlated with M2 phenotype density and its activity in HPV infected cervical lesions. HPV DNA was investigated in cervical tissues using PCR...

T helper 17 (Th17) and T regulatory (Treg) cytokines appear to be contributing greatly to colorectal cancer (CRC) development and progression. The aim of the current study was to investigate the expression of Foxp3; IL10; TGFB1; IL17A; IL6 and NOS2 genes in tumor tissue, regional positive lymph nodes and distant metastasis obtained from 26 patients with advanced CRC. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was performed for mRNA detection by TaqMan gene expression assay. In distant metastasis, IL6 was strongly expressed, over 7...

The dual specificity phosphatases (DUSPs) constitute a family of stress-induced enzymes that provide feedback inhibition on mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) critical in key aspects of oncogenic signaling. While described in other tumor types, the landscape of DUSP mRNA expression in glioblastoma (GB) remains largely unexplored. Interrogation of the REpository for Molecular BRAin Neoplasia DaTa (REMBRANDT) revealed induction (DUSP4, DUSP6), repression (DUSP2, DUSP7-9), or mixed (DUSP1, DUSP5, DUSP10, DUSP15) DUSP transcription of select DUSPs in bulk tumor specimens...

Studies indicate secreted cathepsins are involved in metastasis. V-ATPases, which are necessary for activating intracellular cathepsins, also play a role in metastasis and are targeted to the plasma membrane of metastatic breast cancer cells. We are interested in a connection between cell surface V-ATPases, activation of secreted cathepsins and the metastatic phenotype of MDA-MB231 cells. We investigated whether V-ATPase inhibition would reduce the activity of secreted cathepsin B and cathepsin L. Using cell lysates and conditioned media, we measured cathepsin B and L activity within and outside of the cells...

Metaplastic breast carcinoma (MBC) is a rare subtype of invasive breast cancer and has poor prognosis. In general, cancers are heterogeneous cellular masses comprised of different cell types and their extracellular matrix (ECM). However, little is known about the composition of the ECM and its constituents in MBC. Decorin is a ubiquitous ECM macromolecule known of its oncosuppressive activity. As such, it provides an intriguing molecule in the development of novel therapeutics for different malignancies such as MBC...

Tumor progression is often influenced by infiltration of myeloid cells; depending on the M1- or M2-like activation status, these cells may have either inhibitory or promoting effects on tumor growth. We investigated the properties of tumor-associated myeloid cells in a previously established homotransplantable amelanotic melanoma (RMM tumor line) in F344 rats. RMM tumor nodules were allowed to reach the sizes of 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 cm, respectively. Immunohistochemistry and flow cytometry was performed for macrophage markers CD68 and CD163, and for the antigen-presenting cell marker, MHC class II...