Nodal Facilitates Differentiation of Fibroblasts to Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts that Support Tumor Growth in Melanoma and Colorectal Cancer.
Cells
; 8(6)2019 06 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31167491
ABSTRACT
Fibroblasts become cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in the tumor microenvironment after activation by transforming growth factor-ß (TGF-ß) and are critically involved in cancer progression. However, it is unknown whether the TGF superfamily member Nodal, which is expressed in various tumors but not expressed in normal adult tissue, influences the fibroblast to CAF conversion. Here, we report that Nodal has a positive correlation with α-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in clinical melanoma and colorectal cancer (CRC) tissues. We show the Nodal converts normal fibroblasts to CAFs, together with Snail and TGF-ß signaling pathway activation in fibroblasts. Activated CAFs promote cancer growth in vitro and tumor-bearing mouse models in vivo. These results demonstrate that intercellular crosstalk between cancer cells and fibroblasts is mediated by Nodal, which controls tumor growth, providing potential targets for the prevention and treatment of tumors.
Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Colorectal Neoplasms
/
Cell Differentiation
/
Nodal Protein
/
Melanoma
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Animals
/
Female
/
Humans
Language:
En
Year:
2019
Type:
Article