Tridimensional cell culture of dermal fibroblasts promotes exosome-mediated secretion of extracellular matrix proteins.

Extracellular matrix (ECM) secretion, deposition and assembly are part of a whole complex biological process influencing the microenvironment and other cellular behaviors. Emerging evidence is attributing a significant role to extracellular vesicles (EVs) and exosomes in a plethora of ECM-associated functions, but the role of dermal fibroblast-derived EVs in paracrine signalling is yet unclear. Herein, we investigated the effect of exosomes isolated from stimulated human dermal fibroblasts.

F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) is accurate for high-grade prostate cancer bone staging when compared to bone scintigraphy.

Introduction: In this study, we compared F-fluorodeoxyglucose (F-FDG)-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) and bone scintigraphy accuracies for the detection of bone metastases for primary staging in high-grade prostate cancer (PCa) patients to determine if F-FDG-PET/CT could be used alone as a staging modality.

Methods: Men with localized high-grade PCa (n=256, Gleason 8-10, International Society of Urological Pathology [ISUP] grades 4 or 5) were imaged with bone scintigraphy and F-FDG-PET/CT. We compared, on a per-patient basis, the accuracy of the two imaging modalities, taking inter-modality agreement as the standard of truth (SOT).

TGFβ Signaling in the Tumor Microenvironment.

Transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) is a pleiotropic growth factor. Under normal physiological conditions, TGFβ maintains homeostasis in mammalian tissues by restraining the growth of cells and stimulating apoptosis. However, the role of TGFβ signaling in the carcinogenesis is complex.

Cancer-associated fibroblasts induce epithelial-mesenchymal transition of bladder cancer cells through paracrine IL-6 signalling.

Background: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), activated by tumour cells, are the predominant type of stromal cells in cancer tissue and play an important role in interacting with neoplastic cells to promote cancer progression. Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a key feature of metastatic cells. However, the mechanism by which CAFs induce EMT program in bladder cancer cells remains unclear.