Antagonism between wild-type and mutant β-catenin controls hepatoblastoma differentiation via fascin-1.

Background & Aims: β-catenin is a well-known effector of the Wnt pathway, and a key player in cadherin-mediated cell adhesion. Oncogenic mutations of β-catenin are very frequent in paediatric liver primary tumours. Those mutations are mostly heterozygous, which allows the co-expression of wild-type (WT) and mutated β-catenins in tumour cells.

Extracellular Vesicles from Ocular Melanoma Have Pro-Fibrotic and Pro-Angiogenic Properties on the Tumor Microenvironment.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary intraocular tumor and often spreads to the liver. Intercellular communication though extracellular vesicles (EVs) plays an important role in several oncogenic processes, including metastasis, therapeutic resistance, and immune escape. This study examines how EVs released by UM cells modify stellate and endothelial cells in the tumor microenvironment.

Uveal melanoma pathobiology: Metastasis to the liver.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a type of intraocular tumor with a propensity to disseminate to the liver. Despite the identification of the early driver mutations during the development of the pathology, the process of UM metastasis is still not fully comprehended. A better understanding of the genetic, molecular, and environmental factors participating to its spread and metastatic outgrowth could provide additional approaches for UM treatment.

Human Organ-Specific 3D Cancer Models Produced by the Stromal Self-Assembly Method of Tissue Engineering for the Study of Solid Tumors.

Cancer research has considerably progressed with the improvement of study models, helping to understand the key role of the tumor microenvironment in cancer development and progression. Over the last few years, complex 3D human cell culture systems have gained much popularity over models, as they accurately mimic the tumor microenvironment and allow high-throughput drug screening. Of particular interest, human 3D tissue constructs, produced by the self-assembly method of tissue engineering, have been successfully used to model the tumor microenvironment and now represent a very promising approach to further develop diverse cancer models.

Synergic Interactions Between Hepatic Stellate Cells and Uveal Melanoma in Metastatic Growth.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is a malignant intraocular tumor that spreads to the liver in half of the cases. Since hepatic cells could play a role in the therapeutic resistance of metastatic UM, the purpose of our study was to investigate the pro-invasive role of hepatic stellate cells (HSteCs) in metastatic UM at the micro- and macro-metastatic stages. We first performed an immunostaining with the alpha-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) to localize activated HSteCs in UM liver macro-metastases from four patients.

Rnd3/RhoE expression is regulated by G-actin through MKL1-SRF signaling pathway.

Rnd3/RhoE is an atypical member of the Rho family of small GTPases, devoid of intrinsic GTP hydrolytic activity and a general modulator of important cellular processes such as migration and proliferation. Here, we show that Rnd3 is a target of the transcription factor SRF and its co-activator MKL1. The MKL1-SRF pathway assures the translation of physical forces into a transcriptional response.

Expression of the serotonin receptor 2B in uveal melanoma and effects of an antagonist on cell lines.

Uveal melanoma (UM) is the most common primary tumor in the adult, and disseminates to the liver in half of patients. A 15-gene expression profile prognostic assay allows to determine the likelihood of metastasis in patients using their ocular tumor DNA, but a cure still remains to be discovered. The serotonin receptor 2B represents the discriminant gene of this molecular signature with the greatest impact on the prognosis of UM.

TGF-β1 promotes linear invadosome formation in hepatocellular carcinoma cells, through DDR1 up-regulation and collagen I cross-linking.

Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) is an important player in chronic liver diseases inducing fibrogenesis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development. TGF-β1 promotes pleiotropic modifications at the cellular and matrix microenvironment levels. TGF-β1 was described to enhance production of type I collagen and its associated cross-linking enzyme, the lysyl oxidase-like2 (LOXL2).

Rnd3 in Cancer: A Review of the Evidence for Tumor Promoter or Suppressor.

Unlabelled: Rho-GTPases are members of the Ras superfamily of small GTPases and are general modulators of important cellular processes in tumor biology such as migration and proliferation. Among these proteins, Rnd3/RhoE, an atypical Rho-GTPase devoid of GTP hydrolytic activity, has recently been studied for its putative role in tumorigenesis. Indeed, Rnd3 is implicated in processes, such as proliferation and migration, whose deregulation is linked to cancer development and metastasis.

Study of blood flow parameters measured in femoral artery after exercise: correlation with maximum oxygen uptake.

To study the recovery periods of blood flow parameters in muscles after anaerobic exercise, instantaneous and mean blood flow velocity curves were recorded in the femoral artery in 22 sportsmen at rest and during the first 4 min of recovery after exercise (Ruffier-Dickson test). A flat ultrasonic probe connected to a Doppler system (Flow-Tester) was fixed on the skin at the level of the common femoral artery. From Doppler recordings, we calculated periods of recovery (return to baseline) of femoral blood flow velocity (FBFV RP), heart rate (HR RP) and femoral stroke distance (FSD RP).