#microenvironment

A Niche Partnership

Adult stem cells are ever-ready to leap into action and repair tissues. Their activity is regulated by cells in their microenvironment – niche cells – that send them signals. A disturbance in niche or stem cell development can cause disease, including cancer. Researchers, therefore, seek to better understand the development of these two groups of cells using a fruit fly model, specifically looking at follicle stem cells and niche cells in developing fruit fly ovaries. Using fluorescence microscopy of developing ovaries (pictured) taken from fruit flies genetically engineered to produce fluorescent markers for specific cell types, they found that both the stem cells (green) and niche cells (red) develop from the same precursor cells. Moreover, the cells were able to mature into their distinct identities as they were physically separated out along the length of the developing ovary, exposing themselves to different signals as part of the complex process of development.

Written by Lux Fatimathas

Video by Amy Reilein and Helen V Kogan, and colleagues

Department of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, NY, USA

Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, September 2021

Microenviroment work in progress.

Made with Zbrush 2019, Maya 2018, Marvelous Designer 7.

Study shows that neurons support cancer growth throughout the body.

It is known that cancer cells rely on the healthy cells which surround them for sustenance. Tumours reroute blood vessels to nourish themselves, secrete chemicals that scramble immune responses, and recruit then manipulate neurons for their own gain.  Direct growth-promoting effects of neurons in the tumour microenvironment have been described for an increasing list of cancers, with tumour…

Use the Force

For a tumour to spread and grow, its cells must pull against the surrounding microenvironment of supporting molecules like elastic collagen. This jostling for space generates tension inside the cell – a struggle that drugs might exploit to limit cancerous growth. To investigate these forces, here researchers swap real tumours for lab-grown tumour ‘spheroids’ (black) which strain against the surrounding collagen under a microscope, creating starburst patterns of ‘deformations’ over a 12 hour period (top left to bottom right). Mathematical models simulate these patterns with the aim of predicting the contractility of different spheroids – how much their internal structure contracts when straining. Similar techniques could be used to predict the response of tumours growing in different tissue environments and provide a model for testing drugs aiming to push back on cancer.

Written by John Ankers

Image from work by Christophe Mark, Thomas J Grundy, Pamela L Strissel and David Böhringer, and colleagues

Department of Physics, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Erlangen, Germany

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Published in eLife, April 2020

CLIM-TIME provides a high-throughput perturbation-mapping platform that links tumor suppressor gene loss to spatially defined metastatic niches and immune responses, identifying LOXL2 as a key modulator of suppressive metastatic environments. Inhibition of LOXL2 restores T cell infiltration into tumors and improves the efficacy of therapy. Read more about this post… Credits: Source Disclaimer

To effectively battle cancer, scientists must study the battlefield. Now, in a recent study published in Nature Communications, a multi-institutional research team including The University of Osaka has discovered some crucial intel: localized oxygen deficiency in the colon cancer microenvironment can promote tumor growth. Until recently, oxygen deprivation, i.e., hypoxia, was thought to suppress…