Migration alert — How tumor cells home in on the lymphatic system

Scientists know that tumor cells spread via the lymphatic system, but they don’t understand the details of how this deadly migration takes place. In the June 2007 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, EPFL Professor Melody Swartz and postdoctoral researcher Jacqueline Shields provide an explanation along with data to support it.

Tumors produce excess fluid that continually percolates from the tumor towards nearby lymphatic vessels. The EPFL research shows how tumor cells use a clever chemical strategy to exploit this slow, one-way flow in order to migrate to functional lymphatic vessels.

As part of their intercellular drainage job, lymphatic tissues secrete small quantities of a signaling molecule. Cells migrate towards high concentrations of this molecule, so if they are close enough to the lymphatic to sense the molecule, they will migrate towards the vessel. Swartz’s group showed that tumor cells secrete this same molecule. Since lymphatics drain fluid, there will always be slow fluid flow going away from the tumor into the lymphatic vessel. This slow flow biases the concentration distribution of this molecule towards the lymphatic, and the tumor cell follows it, like the proverbial carrot on a stick. Near the vessel, concentrations of the signaling molecule are reinforced by the lymphatic’s own secretions, fine tuning the tumor cells’ migration and guaranteeing that they will home in on the lymphatic.

To demonstrate this new concept, the researchers engineered a tissue culture model of the tumor-lymphatic microenvironment and developed computational models to calculate the gradients of the signaling molecule.

The study provides the first evidence that tumor cells can both produce and use the same signaling molecule, and it highlights the significance of the biophysical environment in the vicinity of a tumor, particularly the existence of continuous slow flow in the direction of functional lymphatics.

This research could open new avenues for combating metastasis, says Swartz. “It implies that if a lymphatic was blocked, tumor cells would be less attracted to it. This means that tumor cells “know” which lymphatic vessels will be more effective routes for dissemination,” she explains. “Therapeutically, it indicates that a drug target for lymph node metastases could be blocking the signaling molecule or its receptor on the tumor cell.”

Media Contact

Melody Swartz EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.epfl.ch

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Bringing bio-inspired robots to life

Nebraska researcher Eric Markvicka gets NSF CAREER Award to pursue manufacture of novel materials for soft robotics and stretchable electronics. Engineers are increasingly eager to develop robots that mimic the…

Bella moths use poison to attract mates

Scientists are closer to finding out how. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are as bitter and toxic as they are hard to pronounce. They’re produced by several different types of plants and are…

AI tool creates ‘synthetic’ images of cells

…for enhanced microscopy analysis. Observing individual cells through microscopes can reveal a range of important cell biological phenomena that frequently play a role in human diseases, but the process of…

Partners & Sponsors