RESUMO
The mechanistic contributions of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in breast cancer progression remain to be fully understood. While altered glucose metabolism in CAFs could fuel cancer cells, how such metabolic reprogramming emerges and is sustained needs further investigation. Studying fibroblasts isolated from patients with benign breast tissues and breast cancer, in conjunction with multiple animal models, we demonstrate that CAFs exhibit a metabolic shift toward lactate and pyruvate production and fuel biosynthetic pathways of cancer cells. The depletion or suppression of the lactate production of CAFs alter the tumor metabolic profile and impede tumor growth. The glycolytic phenotype of the CAFs is in part sustained through epigenetic reprogramming of HIF-1α and glycolytic enzymes. Hypoxia induces epigenetic reprogramming of normal fibroblasts, resulting in a pro-glycolytic, CAF-like transcriptome. Our findings suggest that the glucose metabolism of CAFs evolves during tumor progression, and their breast cancer-promoting phenotype is partly mediated by oxygen-dependent epigenetic modifications.
Assuntos
Neoplasias da Mama/patologia , Fibroblastos Associados a Câncer/metabolismo , Epigenômica , Glucose/metabolismo , Actinas/genética , Actinas/metabolismo , Animais , Neoplasias da Mama/metabolismo , Fibroblastos Associados a Câncer/citologia , Linhagem Celular Tumoral , Feminino , Glicólise , Humanos , Subunidade alfa do Fator 1 Induzível por Hipóxia/genética , Subunidade alfa do Fator 1 Induzível por Hipóxia/metabolismo , Ácido Láctico/metabolismo , Camundongos , Camundongos Endogâmicos BALB C , Camundongos Transgênicos , Transportadores de Ácidos Monocarboxílicos/antagonistas & inibidores , Transportadores de Ácidos Monocarboxílicos/genética , Transportadores de Ácidos Monocarboxílicos/metabolismo , Piruvato Desidrogenase Quinase de Transferência de Acetil/antagonistas & inibidores , Piruvato Desidrogenase Quinase de Transferência de Acetil/genética , Piruvato Desidrogenase Quinase de Transferência de Acetil/metabolismo , Ácido Pirúvico/metabolismo , Interferência de RNA , RNA Interferente Pequeno/metabolismo , Simportadores/antagonistas & inibidores , Simportadores/genética , Simportadores/metabolismoRESUMO
Mesenchymal stem cells have been recently described to localize to breast carcinomas, where they integrate into the tumour-associated stroma. However, the involvement of mesenchymal stem cells (or their derivatives) in tumour pathophysiology has not been addressed. Here, we demonstrate that bone-marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells, when mixed with otherwise weakly metastatic human breast carcinoma cells, cause the cancer cells to increase their metastatic potency greatly when this cell mixture is introduced into a subcutaneous site and allowed to form a tumour xenograft. The breast cancer cells stimulate de novo secretion of the chemokine CCL5 (also called RANTES) from mesenchymal stem cells, which then acts in a paracrine fashion on the cancer cells to enhance their motility, invasion and metastasis. This enhanced metastatic ability is reversible and is dependent on CCL5 signalling through the chemokine receptor CCR5. Collectively, these data demonstrate that the tumour microenvironment facilitates metastatic spread by eliciting reversible changes in the phenotype of cancer cells.