Project description:The paper describes a model of tumor invasion to bone marrow. Created by COPASI 4.26 (Build 213) This model is described in the article: Modeling invasion of metastasizing cancer cells to bone marrow utilizing ecological principles Kun-Wan Chen, Kenneth J Pienta Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling 2011, 8:36 Abstract: Background: The invasion of a new species into an established ecosystem can be directly compared to the steps involved in cancer metastasis. Cancer must grow in a primary site, extravasate and survive in the circulation to then intravasate into target organ (invasive species survival in transport). Cancer cells often lay dormant at their metastatic site for a long period of time (lag period for invasive species) before proliferating (invasive spread). Proliferation in the new site has an impact on the target organ microenvironment (ecological impact) and eventually the human host (biosphere impact). Results: Tilman has described mathematical equations for the competition between invasive species in a structured habitat. These equations were adapted to study the invasion of cancer cells into the bone marrow microenvironment as a structured habitat. A large proportion of solid tumor metastases are bone metastases, known to usurp hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) homing pathways to establish footholds in the bone marrow. This required accounting for the fact that this is the natural home of hematopoietic stem cells and that they already occupy this structured space. The adapted Tilman model of invasion dynamics is especially valuable for modeling the lag period or dormancy of cancer cells. Conclusions: The Tilman equations for modeling the invasion of two species into a defined space have been modified to study the invasion of cancer cells into the bone marrow microenvironment. These modified equations allow a more flexible way to model the space competition between the two cell species. The ability to model initial density, metastatic seeding into the bone marrow and growth once the cells are present, and movement of cells out of the bone marrow niche and apoptosis of cells are all aspects of the adapted equations. These equations are currently being applied to clinical data sets for verification and further refinement of the models. To cite BioModels Database, please use: BioModels Database: An enhanced, curated and annotated resource for published quantitative kinetic models . To the extent possible under law, all copyright and related or neighbouring rights to this encoded model have been dedicated to the public domain worldwide. Please refer to CC0 Public Domain Dedication for more information.

Project description:Breast cancer cells display preferences for specific metastatic sites including the bone, lung and liver. Metastasis is a complex process that relies, in part, on interactions between disseminated cancer cells and resident/infiltrating stromal cells that constitute the metastatic microenvironment. Distinct immune infiltrates can either impair the metastatic process or conversely, assist in the seeding, colonization and growth of disseminated cancer cells. Using in vivo selection approaches, we previously isolated 4T1-derived breast cancer cells that preferentially metastasize to these organs and tissues. In this study, we examined whether the propensity of breast cancer cells to metastasize to the lung, liver or bone is associated with and dependent on distinct patterns of immune cell infiltration. Immunohistocytochemistry and immunohistofluorescence approaches were used to quantify granulocytic infiltrates within distinct metastases and depletion of Gr1+ cells was performed to functionally interrogate the role of myeloid/granulocytic infiltrates in promoting metastasis to these organs. We show that T lymphocytes (CD3+), myeloid-derived/granulocytic cells (Gr-1+) cells and neutrophils (NE+) exhibit the most pronounced recruitment in lung and liver metastases, with markedly less recruitment within bone metastatic lesions. Interestingly, these infiltrating cell populations display different patterns of localization within soft tissue metastases. T lymphocytes and neutrophils are localized around the periphery of liver metastases whereas they were dispersed throughout the lung metastases. Furthermore, Gr-1+ cell-depletion studies demonstrate that infiltrating myeloid-derived/granulocytic cells, including neutrophils, are essential for the formation of breast cancer liver metastases but dispensable for metastasis to the lung and bone. Finally, we demonstrate that neutrophils that infiltrate and surround the liver metastases are polarized towards an N2 phenotype, which have previously been shown to enhance tumor growth and metastasis. Our results demonstrate that the liver metastatic potential of breast cancer cells is heavily reliant on interactions with infiltrating myeloid/granulocytic cells in the liver microenvironment.

Project description:Using a multiorgan metastasis model of human NSCLC cells (ACC-LC319/bone2) in NK cell-depleted SCID mice, we attempted to identify genes involved in the organ-selective nature of lung cancer-metastasis process, especially bone metastasis. Genome-wide gene expression profile of 15 metastatic lesions from three organs (bone, lung and liver) in this mouse model revealed lot of genes that seemed to reflect the organ specificity of metastatic cells. Among bone-specifically-expressed genes, dozen of genes involved in cell adhesion, cytoskeleton/cell motility, extracellular matrix remodeling, and cell-cell signaling. The upregulation of 11 genes, some of them were either previously reported to be involved in metastatic characteristics, were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. The high ability for bone metastasis human lung adenocarcinoma cell line ACC-LC319/bone2 was established in our laboratory from the parental cell line ACC-LC319 (a kind gift from Dr T. Takahashi, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan). ACC-LC319 cells with low capacity of bone metastatic ability were selected in vivo for two cycles in bone metastasis mouse models. After two cycles of selection, the derivative cell line designated as ACC-LC319/bone2 showed increased bone metastatic ability compared to parental cell line (Otsuka S., Oncol Res 2009). In this multiorgan metastasis model, SCID mice were depleted NK cells, and two days later, these mice were intravenously injected 1x10^6 cells. The mice were followed up for clinical symptoms and signs of metastases, and were sacrificed on day 34 after tumor inoculation. Metastastic tissues in lung, liver and bone were collected and snap frozen in liquid nitrogen then keep at -80C until cryosection. Laser microbeam microdissection was used to capture pure population of cancer cells in each organ as well as mouse normal tissues in corresponding organ (i.e. the surrounding normal tissues with no microscopic metastasis). Totally, there were 19 samples, including one sample for metastases in each organ (bone, lung and liver) in five mice (i.e., 15 samples); one for each normal mouse tissue (i.e.,three samples); and one for the in vitro cell line (ACC-LC319/bone 2). DNA microarray were performed using Agilent platform, and the gene expression profile of metastases in bone were compared with the gene expression profile of metastases in other two organs (lung, liver). Those genes whose expression in mouse normal tissues was above the cut off value were excluded. The expression of genes in the in vitro cells was used as the universal normalization for the in vivo genes expression.

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Separation of breast cancer and organ microenvironment transcriptomes in metastases

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