Modulation of Acid Sphingomyelinase in Melanoma Reprogrammes the Tumour Immune Microenvironment.

ABSTRACT: The inflammatory microenvironment induces tumours to acquire an aggressive and immunosuppressive behaviour. Since acid sphingomyelinase (A-SMase) downregulation in melanoma was shown to determine a malignant phenotype, we aimed here to elucidate the role of A-SMase in the regulation of tumour immunogenic microenvironment using in vivo melanoma models in which A-SMase was either downregulated or maintained at constitutively high levels. We found high levels of inflammatory factors in low A-SMase expressing tumours, which also displayed an immunosuppressive/protumoural microenvironment: high levels of myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) and regulatory T lymphocytes (Tregs), as well as low levels of dendritic cells (DCs). In contrast, the restoration of A-SMase in melanoma cells not only

SUBMITTER: Assi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4460251 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature