Invasion of colon and breast cancer cell lines (S1); Mesenchymal Stem Cells enhance tumor invasion through Collagen or Matrigel matrices (S2); Invasion of HT-29 M6 is preceded by that of MSCs (S3); Generation of MSCs and MEFs depleted in Snail1 (S4); Generation of HT-29 M6 Snail1 CRISPR KO cells (S5); Genes differently regulated by HT-29 M6 in MSCs wild-type and Snail1 KO (S6); Prostaglandin E2 acts as a chemoattractant (S7); Inhibition of PGE2 signaling prevents HT-29 M6 invasion (S8); PGE2 stimulates HT-29 M6 invasion (S9); Snail1 expression in MSCs is required for the MSCs stimulation of invasion of different epithelial cell lines (S10); Expression of EP4 PGE2 receptor in epithelial cell lines (S11); Isolation of murine and human CAFs with different Snail1 levels (S12); Identification of ePyMT metastases in the lung (S13); Celecoxib does not modify tumor size in ePyMT-MSCs co-xenografts (S14).
Funding
Fundación Científica de la Asociación Española contra el Cáncer
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad
Fundación Eugenio Rodríguez Pascual, Fundació la Marató de TV3
Generalitat de Catalunya
Instituto Carlos III
ARTICLE ABSTRACT
Snail1 transcriptional factor is essential for triggering epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and inducing tumor cell invasion. We report here an EMT-independent action of Snail1 on tumor invasion, as it is required for the activation of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF). Snail1 expression in fibroblasts requires signals derived from tumor cells, such as TGFβ; reciprocally, in fibroblasts, Snail1 organizes a complex program that stimulates invasion of epithelial cells independent of the expression of Snail1 in these cells. Epithelial cell invasion is stimulated by the secretion by fibroblast of diffusible signaling molecules, such as prostaglandin E2. The capability of human or murine CAFs to promote tumor invasion is dependent on Snail1 expression. Inducible Snail1 depletion in mice decreases the invasion of breast tumors; moreover, epithelial tumor cells coxenografted with Snail1-depleted fibroblasts originated tumors with lower invasion than those transplanted with control fibroblasts. Therefore, these results demonstrate that the role of Snail1 in tumor invasion is not limited to EMT, but it is also dependent on its activity in stromal fibroblasts, where it orchestrates the cross-talk with epithelial tumor cells. Cancer Res; 76(21); 6205–17. ©2016 AACR.
