Ogura, M;
(2016)
Importance of tumour microenvironment and its overriding power on cancer cell behaviour.
Masters thesis , UCL (University College London).
Abstract
Despite the improvement in our knowledge of cancer over the past century, it still poses a primary threat against our lives today. Especially, survival rates amongst patients with metastases have remained poor with their deaths accounting for more than 90% of cancer-related mortality. Therefore, further understandings on the disease progression are in an urgent need. The significance of tumour microenvironment and cellular heterogeneity in determining the fate of the disease has been well documented. This gave rise to a conceptual framework to regard a tumour as a consortium of heterogeneous cell populations including stromal compartments, which crosstalk extensively for mutual benefits. In the present study, we sought to investigate two aspects of such intra-tumour crosstalk in the MMTV-PyMT mouse model of breast cancer by exploiting various in vitro culturing techniques and in vivo assays. In the first part (chapter 3), we aimed to identify one of factors that facilitate the communication between cancer cells with different properties, namely metastasis-initiating cells (MICs) and non-MICs. The candidate cytokine interleukin-11 (IL-11) boosted the self-renewal ability of MICs but not of nonMICs in vitro, suggesting its role in the regulation of different cancer cell subpopulations within tumour mass. In the second part (chapter 4), we focused more on the importance of microenvironment in affecting how aggressive cancer cells behave when they are isolated from their primary environment. Our results indicated that the ability of carcinoma-derived cells to re-establish malignant growth was strongly dependent on the presence of appropriate stromal environment, confirming the fundamental role of microenvironment in supporting not only tumour progression but also its initiation and maintenance. Lastly in chapter 5, we assessed the impact of culture conditions that are widely used in laboratory practices on stress levels of primary tumour cells to facilitate the establishment of cell-lines from primary cancer cells.
| Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Title: | Importance of tumour microenvironment and its overriding power on cancer cell behaviour |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1511868 |
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