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Macrophages are exploited from an innate wound healing response to facilitate cancer metastasis.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Muliaditan, Tamara 
Caron, Jonathan 
Okesola, Mary 
Opzoomer, James W 
Kosti, Paris 

Abstract

Tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) play an important role in tumour progression, which is facilitated by their ability to respond to environmental cues. Here we report, using murine models of breast cancer, that TAMs expressing fibroblast activation protein alpha (FAP) and haem oxygenase-1 (HO-1), which are also found in human breast cancer, represent a macrophage phenotype similar to that observed during the wound healing response. Importantly, the expression of a wound-like cytokine response within the tumour is clinically associated with poor prognosis in a variety of cancers. We show that co-expression of FAP and HO-1 in macrophages results from an innate early regenerative response driven by IL-6, which both directly regulates HO-1 expression and licenses FAP expression in a skin-like collagen-rich environment. We show that tumours can exploit this response to facilitate transendothelial migration and metastatic spread of the disease, which can be pharmacologically targeted using a clinically relevant HO-1 inhibitor.

Description

Keywords

Animals, Breast Neoplasms, Cell Line, Tumor, Cell Survival, Collagen, Cytokines, Endopeptidases, Female, Gelatinases, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Heme Oxygenase-1, Humans, Interleukin-6, Macrophages, Membrane Proteins, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Mice, Mutant Strains, Neoplasm Metastasis, Phenotype, Prognosis, Serine Endopeptidases, Skin, Tumor Microenvironment, Wound Healing

Journal Title

Nat Commun

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2041-1723
2041-1723

Volume Title

9

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Sponsorship
MRC (unknown)
Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12022/5)