Imaging the Role of Multinucleate Pancreatic Cancer Cells and Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Peritoneal Metastasis in Mouse Models.
BACKGROUND/AIM
The interaction between pancreatic-cancer cells and stromal cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) is of particular importance in cancer progression and metastasis. The present report demonstrates the role of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) and multinucleate pancreatic-cancer cells in peritoneal metastasis.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
An orthotopic mouse model of pancreatic cancer was established with the human pancreatic cancer cell line BxPC3, which stably expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP).


RESULTS
BxPC3-GFP cells formed peritoneal metastases by week 18 after orthotopic implantation. Using an Olympus FV1000 confocal microscope, multi-nucleated cancer cells were frequently observed in the peritoneal metastases. The primary pancreatic tumor and peritoneal-metastases were harvested, cultured and then transplanted subcutaneously. Subcutaneous tumors established from peritoneal-metastatic cells were larger than subcutaneous tumors established from primary-tumor cells. Subcutaneous tumors of each type were subsequently cultured in vitro. CAFs were observed growing out from the tumors established from peritoneal-metastatic cells, but not the tumors established from the primary cancer.


CONCLUSION
The results of the present study suggest that multi-nucleated cancer cells and CAFs were related to peritoneal metastasis of pancreatic cancer.
['Hasegawa|Kosuke|K|', 'Suetsugu|Atsushi|A|', 'Nakamura|Miki|M|', 'Matsumoto|Takuro|T|', 'Aoki|Hitomi|H|', 'Kunisada|Takahiro|T|', 'Shimizu|Masahito|M|', 'Saji|Shigetoyo|S|', 'Moriwaki|Hisataka|H|', 'Hoffman|Robert M|RM|']
D000818:Animals D000072645:Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts D045744:Cell Line, Tumor D004195:Disease Models, Animal D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins D006801:Humans D008164:Luminescent Proteins D051379:Mice D008819:Mice, Nude D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation D010179:Pancreas D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms D010534:Peritoneal Neoplasms D010537:Peritoneum D017154:Stromal Cells D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
imaging Pancreatic cancer cancer-associated fibroblasts peritoneal metastasis orthotopic green fluorescent protein nude mice