Peritoneal milky spots serve as a hypoxic niche and favor gastric cancer stem/progenitor cell peritoneal dissemination through hypoxia-inducible factor 1α.

ABSTRACT: Peritoneal dissemination is the most common cause of death in gastric cancer patients. The hypoxic microenvironment plays a major role in controlling the tumor stem cell phenotype and is associated with patients' prognosis through hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α), a key transcriptional factor that responds to hypoxic stimuli. During the peritoneal dissemination process, gastric cancer stem/progenitor cells (GCSPCs) are thought to enter into and maintained in peritoneal milky spots (PMSs), which have hypoxic microenvironments. However, the mechanism through which the hypoxic environment of PMSs regulated GCSPC maintenance is still poorly understood. Here, we investigated whether hypoxic PMSs were an ideal cancer stem cell niche suitable for GCSPC engraftment. We also evaluated the mecha

SUBMITTER: Miao ZF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4282537 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature