单位:[1]Cancer Biology Research Center, Key Laboratory of The Ministry of Education, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China.华中科技大学同济医学院附属同济医院肿瘤生物医学中心[2]Department of Molecular Biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, TX, Dallas, USA.
Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) play a pivotal role in the development and progression of many human cancers. Recent studies have shown that Hedgehog (Hh) signalling modulates the stromal microenvironment and prepares a suitable niche for tumour metastasis. However, the detailed molecular mechanisms underlying CAF-mediated lymphangiogenesis have not been fully elucidated. Therefore, our goal is to illustrate whether Hh ligands can activate Hh signalling in CAFs in a paracrine fashion and elucidate the effect of CAFs on lymphangiogenesis. We determined here that Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) secreted by ovarian cancer (OC) cells activated Hh signalling in CAFs and promoted the proliferation of CAFs. Moreover, we co-injected SHH-overexpressing OC cells and CAFs in a xenograft model and found that the CAFs accelerated tumourigenesis and lymphangiogenesis in OC. Mechanistically, we found that SHH secreted by the OC cells induced VEGF-C expression in CAFs. Inhibition of Hh signalling in CAFs decreased VEGF-C expression and diminished the positive role of CAFs in supporting tumourigenesis and lymphangiogenesis in a murine xenograft model. Our results demonstrate that CAFs constitute a supportive niche for cancer lymphangiogenesis via the Hh/VEGF-C signalling axis and provide evidence for the clinical application of Hh inhibitors in the treatment of OC.
基金:
This work was supported by a grant from National Science Foundation of China (81472444, 81172468, 81472783, 81630060 and 81230038), the National Science-technology Supporting Plan Projects(2015BAI13B05) and “973” Program of China (No. 2015CB553903), an outstanding overseas project (30628029).
第一作者单位:[1]Cancer Biology Research Center, Key Laboratory of The Ministry of Education, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, People's Republic of China.
通讯作者:
推荐引用方式(GB/T 7714):
Wei Rui,Lv Mengqin,Li Fei,et al.Human CAFs promote lymphangiogenesis in ovarian cancer via the Hh-VEGF-C signaling axis.[J].Oncotarget.2017,8(40):67315-67328.doi:10.18632/oncotarget.18621.
APA:
Wei Rui,Lv Mengqin,Li Fei,Cheng Teng,Zhang Zhengzhong...&Xi Ling.(2017).Human CAFs promote lymphangiogenesis in ovarian cancer via the Hh-VEGF-C signaling axis..Oncotarget,8,(40)
MLA:
Wei Rui,et al."Human CAFs promote lymphangiogenesis in ovarian cancer via the Hh-VEGF-C signaling axis.".Oncotarget 8..40(2017):67315-67328