Download Mechanical aspects of cancer cell invasion and metastasis

Mechanical aspects of
cancer cell invasion and metastasis
»
Prof. Dr. Claudia Tanja Mierke
Keywords
in representing a strong barrier
similar as established for leukocyte
(immune cell) extravasation upon
tissue injury. The research group
has demonstrated that the endothelium is for certain cancer cells no
barrier, it is even an enhancer for
cancer cell invasion. In particular,
they have shown that the aggressive and invasive cancer cells alter
the mechanical properties of the endothelial cells such as stiffness and
cytoskeletal remodeling dynamics,
which may help certain cancer cells
to migrate through.
The knowledge of the parameters
that drive the invasion of a certain
subset of cancer cells out of the primary tumor may help to determine
whether a primary tumor will metastasize or not and may additionally
provide hints for the development
of substances inhibiting cancer cell
metastasis.
„„ Invasion and trans-
endothelial migration
of cancer cells
„„ Mechanical properties
(forces, stiffness, cytoskeletal remodeling
dynamics) of cancer cells
and endothelial cells
„„ Tumor microenvironment
including the immune system
Contact
Selected References
Mierke, C.T.; Frey, B.: Fellner, M.; Herrmann, M.; Fabry, B.
Integrin alpha5 beta1 facilitates cancer cell invasion through enhanced
contractile forces.
J. Cell Science, 124 (2011 ) 369 – 383.
Mierke, C.T.
The integrin alphav beta3 increases cellular stiffness and cytoskeletal remodeling
dynamics to facilitate cancer cell invasion.
New Journal of Physics 15, (2013) 015003 (23pp).
Mierke, C.T.
Phagocytized beads reduce the alpha5 beta1 integrin facilitated invasiveness of
cancer cells by regulating cellular stiffness.
Cell Biochem. Biophys. 66 (2013) 599 – 622.
Prof. Dr. Claudia Tanja Mierke
Professur für Physik der weichen
Materie und Biologische Physik
Universität Leipzig
Fakultät für Physik und
Geowissenschaften
Institut für Experimentelle Physik I
Abteilung für Biologische Physik
Linnéstr. 5
04103 Leipzig
fon +49 341 97-32541
[email protected]
www.softmatterphysics.com
Biomedical and Cell Engineering
The main cause of cancer deaths
is normally not the primary tumor,
which can be resected well, if the
tumor is not spread. The main cause
of cancer deaths is rather the ability
of a certain set of cancer cells from
the primary tumor (of epithelial origin) to form metastases in targeted
organs.
These subsets of agressive and
metastatic cancer cells can migrate
out of the primary tumor, migrate
through the surrounding 3D tissue
matrix, intravasate into blood or
lymph vessels, get transported with
the vessel flow and form either a
secondary tumor in the vessel or
possibly extravasate through the endothelial vessel wall, invade into the
extracellular matrix to build up a
secondary tumor in the connective
tissue of the targeted organ.
Thus, the endothelium seems to
play an important role in regulating cancer metastasis. In past, the
endothelium has been reported to
inhibit cancer cell transmigration