Extracellular substations affect cancer metastasis by regulating sugar metabolism

RESEARCHERs at UCLA have found that extracellular substates, a dense mesh structure of proteins and carbohydrates around cells, can control cell movement in the body by regulating sugar consumption in cells. The study found that dramatic changes in the single component of the extracellular substate can promote rapid changes in cell metabolism and migration.
Given the importance of glucose metabolism in the growth and migration of cancer cells, scientists have conducted in-depth studies on how glucose metabolism responds to internal and external stimuli, but few studies have focused on the relationship between metabolism and changes in specific components of extracellular substitasis, which occur during normal development and disease progression.
By analyzing the patient's breast cancer tissue and the genes in the breast cancer cell line that affect glucose metabolism, the researchers made a startling discovery: one of the genes closely related to the high-speed metabolism of glucose is a subject of hyalurony acid, the core component of the extracellular substate. Because the subjects link cells to hyalurinolic acids in extracellular substates, this study suggests that changes in the composition or structure of extracellular substates may affect metabolism. The researchers validated their hypothesis by regulating the levels of hyalurallic acid around the cells and measuring the cells' subsequent glucose metabolism levels.
the study suggests that scientists may be able to create new treatments for cancer by targeting cancer cells to cut off their ability to metabolize sugars. In addition to treatments that directly target cancer cells, researchers can also alter tumor metabolism by targeting extracellular substates.
study will also broaden awareness of a range of diseases, particularly in the importance of revealing how cancer cells spread. It suggests that the ability of cancer cells to consume different levels of nutrients in a single tumor tissue may be related to their ability to migrate. Cells with a high glucose metabolic rate may be able to cause them to migrate to other parts of the body, i.e. metastasis. The study was published recently in Cell. (Bio Valley)