英国弗朗西斯克里克研究所Ilaria Malanchi研究组与剑桥大学Joo-Hyeon Lee研究组，合作利用转移微环境标记技术揭示具有干细胞特征的实质细胞。2019年8月28日，相关论文在线发表于《自然》。
研究人员提出了一种系统，其中转移性癌细胞释放细胞穿透性荧光蛋白，其被相邻细胞吸收并且能够对局部转移细胞环境进行空间鉴定。使用该系统，可以在大块组织内鉴定和表征在转移性生态位中具有低表现的组织细胞。为了突显其潜力，研究人员应用该策略来研究肺中转移性乳腺癌细胞的细胞环境。研究人员发现了癌症相关实质细胞的存在，这些细胞表现出干细胞样特征、肺祖细胞标记物的表达、多谱系分化潜能和自我更新活性。在离体测定中，肺上皮细胞在与癌细胞共培养并支持其生长时获得与癌相关的实质细胞样表型。这些结果显示出该方法作为新发现平台的潜力。
研究人员介绍，目前来说，直接研究由周围组织内的转移细胞诱导的早期细胞变化仍然是一个挑战。
附：英文原文
Title: Metastatic-niche labelling reveals parenchymal cells with stem features
Author: Luigi Ombrato, Emma Nolan, Ivana Kurelac, Antranik Mavousian, Victoria Louise Bridgeman, Ivonne Heinze, Probir Chakravarty, Stuart Horswell, Estela Gonzalez-Gualda, Giulia Matacchione, Anne Weston, Joanna Kirkpatrick, Ehab Husain, Valerie Speirs, Lucy Collinson, Alessandro Ori, Joo-Hyeon Lee, Ilaria Malanchi
Issue&Volume: 2019-08-28
Abstract: Direct investigation of the early cellular changes induced by metastatic cells within the surrounding tissue remains a challenge. Here we present a system in which metastatic cancer cells release a cell-penetrating fluorescent protein, which is taken up by neighbouring cells and enables spatial identification of the local metastatic cellular environment. Using this system, tissue cells with low representation in the metastatic niche can be identified and characterized within the bulk tissue. To highlight its potential, we applied this strategy to study the cellular environment of metastatic breast cancer cells in the lung. We report the presence of cancer-associated parenchymal cells, which exhibit stem-cell-like features, expression of lung progenitor markers, multi-lineage differentiation potential and self-renewal activity. In ex vivo assays, lung epithelial cells acquire a cancer-associated parenchymal-cell-like phenotype when co-cultured with cancer cells and support their growth. These results highlight the potential of this method as a platform for new discoveries.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1487-6
Source:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1487-6
Nature：《自然》，创刊于1869年。隶属于施普林格·自然出版集团，最新IF：69.504
官方网址：http://www.nature.com/
投稿链接：http://www.nature.com/authors/submit_manuscript.html
本期文章：《自然》：Online/在线发表
