Recombinant macrophages promote the spread of breast cancer

Cancer cells spread throughout the body, with individual cells detached from the primary tumor and metastasized to distant areas of the body through the blood or lymphatic system

Blood vessels play a very specific role in metastasis

A team led by Oscarson has now investigated these interactions during lung metastatic colonization by mouse breast cancer cells

But how do cancer cells acquire the lung endothelium to produce a cocktail of proteins that promote metastasis? To the scientists' surprise, the cancer cells themselves do not do the job directly, but instead use a type of innate immune system cell called macrophages cells to do the job

"These macrophages are usually located near pulmonary blood vessels and are activated by tenascin, an extracellular matrix protein produced by breast cancer cells," explains Tsunaki Hongu, first author of the study

Oscarson, now at the H.

Journal Reference :

1. Hongu, T.