Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) are characterized by their desmoplastic and hypervascularized tumor microenvironment (TME), which is mainly composed of tumor cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). CAFs play a pivotal role in general and CCA tumor progression, angiogenesis, metastasis, and the development of treatment resistance. To our knowledge, no continuous human in vivo-like co-culture model is available for research. Therefore, we aimed to establish a new model system (called MUG CCArly) that mimics the desmoplastic microenvironment typically seen in CCA. Proteomic data comparing the new CCA tumor cell line with our co-culture tumor model (CCTM) indicated a higher gene expression correlation of the CCTM with physiological CCA characteristics. A pro-angiogenic TME that is typically observed in CCA could also be better simulated in the CCTM group. Further analysis of secreted proteins revealed CAFs to be the main source of these angiogenic factors. Our CCTM MUG CCArly represents a new, reproducible, and easy-to-handle 3D CCA model for preclinical studies focusing on CCA-stromal crosstalk, tumor angiogenesis, and invasion, as well as the immunosuppressive microenvironment and the involvement of CAFs in the way that drug resistance develops.
Keywords: cancer-associated fibroblasts; co-culture tumor model; proteomics; spheroid; tumor microenvironment.