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Research: GUAN and COLLEAGUES,
Listed in Issue 230
Abstract
GUAN and COLLEAGUES, (1)Department of Pathology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, PR China; (2)Department of General Surgery, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, PR China; (3)Department of Pathology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing 100730, PR China. xhblk@163.com studied the actions of retinoic acid (RA) upon cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumour microenvironment.
Background
Retinoic acid (RA) is a small molecular derivative of vitamin A that is stored in quiescent stellate cells in pancreas stroma. Cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) are activated fibroblast cells in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma tumour microenvironment.
Methodology
The authors treated CAFs with RA and found that these cells became static due to the low expression of α-SMA, FAP, and IL-6 and decreased production of extracellular matrix (ECM).
Results
Furthermore, the authors verified that the low secretion of IL-6 from CAFs was related to RA-induced inhibition of migration and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) of tumour cells. However, RA could not inhibit the migration and EMT of tumour cells directly.
Conclusion
Therefore, this study showed that one of the therapeutic effects of RA on tumour cells is through its modulation of CAFs in tumour microenvironment. The tumour microenvironment plays an important role in promoting tumour migration and might be a promising target of biological treatment.
References
Guan J(1), Zhang H(1), Wen Z(2), Gu Y(1), Cheng Y(1), Sun Y(1), Zhang T(1), Jia C(1), Lu Z(1), Chen J(3). Retinoic acid inhibits pancreatic cancer cell migration and EMT through the downregulation of IL-6 in cancer associated fibroblast cells. Cancer Lett: 345(1):132-9. 1 Apr 2014 doi: 10.1016/j.canlet.2013.12.006. Epub Dec 12 2013.
Comment
The above research, demonstrating that one of the therapeutic effects of retinoic acid (RA) is via its modulation of cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in the tumour microenvironment. This may open a fruitful avenue of research.
