Resolving cancer-stroma interfacial signalling and interventions with micropatterned tumour-stromal assays

Nat Commun. 2014 Dec 9:5:5662. doi: 10.1038/ncomms6662.

Abstract

Tumour-stromal interactions are a determining factor in cancer progression. In vivo, the interaction interface is associated with spatially resolved distributions of cancer and stromal phenotypes. Here, we establish a micropatterned tumour-stromal assay (μTSA) with laser capture microdissection to control the location of co-cultured cells and analyse bulk and interfacial tumour-stromal signalling in driving cancer progression. μTSA reveals a spatial distribution of phenotypes in concordance with human oestrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer samples, and heterogeneous drug activity relative to the tumour-stroma interface. Specifically, an unknown mechanism of reversine is shown in targeting tumour-stromal interfacial interactions using ER+ MCF-7 breast cancer and bone marrow-derived stromal cells. Reversine suppresses MCF-7 tumour growth and bone metastasis in vivo by reducing tumour stromalization including collagen deposition and recruitment of activated stromal cells. This study advocates μTSA as a platform for studying tumour microenvironmental interactions and cancer field effects with applications in drug discovery and development.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bone Marrow Cells / metabolism
  • Bone Neoplasms / pathology
  • Breast Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Collagen / metabolism
  • Disease Progression
  • Female
  • Fibroblasts / metabolism
  • Gene Expression Profiling
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic*
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Ki-67 Antigen / metabolism
  • Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental / pathology
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred NOD
  • Mice, SCID
  • Microcirculation
  • Morpholines / chemistry
  • Neoplasm Metastasis
  • Neoplasm Transplantation
  • Phenotype
  • Purines / chemistry
  • Signal Transduction
  • Stromal Cells / metabolism*

Substances

  • Ki-67 Antigen
  • Morpholines
  • Purines
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins
  • Collagen
  • 2-(4-morpholinoanilino)-6-cyclohexylaminopurine