Pre-metastatic Niche Formation in Different Organs Induced by Tumor Extracellular Vesicles

Qi Dong; Xue Liu; Ke Cheng; Jiahao Sheng; Jing Kong; Tingjiao Liu

doi:10.3389/fcell.2021.733627

Pre-metastatic Niche Formation in Different Organs Induced by Tumor Extracellular Vesicles

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2021 Sep 20:9:733627. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2021.733627. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Qi Dong^{1

2

3}, Xue Liu^{1

2}, Ke Cheng³, Jiahao Sheng³, Jing Kong³, Tingjiao Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Basic Science of Stomatology, Shanghai Stomatological Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
² Shanghai Key Laboratory of Craniomaxillofacial Development and Diseases, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
³ Department of Oral Pathology, School of Stomatology, Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China.

Abstract

Primary tumors selectively modify the microenvironment of distant organs such as the lung, liver, brain, bone marrow, and lymph nodes to facilitate metastasis. This supportive metastatic microenvironment in distant organs was termed the pre-metastatic niche (PMN) that is characterized by increased vascular permeability, extracellular matrix remodeling, bone marrow-derived cells recruitment, angiogenesis, and immunosuppression. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are a group of cell-derived membranous structures that carry various functional molecules. EVs play a critical role in PMN formation by delivering their cargos to recipient cells in target organs. We provide an overview of the characteristics of the PMN in different organs promoted by cancer EVs and the underlying mechanisms in this review.

Keywords: bone marrow-derived cells (BMDCs); extracellular matrix (ECM); extracellular vesicles (EVs); immunosuppression; pre-metastatic niche (PMN); vascular permeability.

Publication types

Review