Mara H Sherman, Ruth T Yu, Dannielle D Engle, Ning Ding, Annette R Atkins, Herve Tiriac, Eric A Collisson, Frances Connor, Terry Van Dyke, Serguei Kozlov, Philip Martin, Tiffany W Tseng, David W Dawson, Timothy R Donahue, Atsushi Masamune, Tooru Shimosegawa, Minoti V Apte, Jeremy S Wilson, Beverly Ng, Sue Lynn Lau, Jenny E Gunton, Geoffrey M Wahl, Tony Hunter, Jeffrey A Drebin, Peter J O'Dwyer, Christopher Liddle, David A Tuveson, Michael Downes, Ronald M Evans
The poor clinical outcome in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is attributed to intrinsic chemoresistance and a growth-permissive tumor microenvironment. Conversion of quiescent to activated pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) drives the severe stromal reaction that characterizes PDA. Here, we reveal that the vitamin D receptor (VDR) is expressed in stroma from human pancreatic tumors and that treatment with the VDR ligand calcipotriol markedly reduced markers of inflammation and fibrosis in pancreatitis and human tumor stroma...
September 25, 2014: Cell