"Stealth dissemination" of macrophage-tumor cell fusions cultured from blood of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Here we describe isolation and characterization of macrophage-tumor cell fusions (MTFs) from the blood of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients. The MTFs were generally aneuploidy, and immunophenotypic characterizations showed that the MTFs express markers characteristic of PDAC and stem cells, as well as M2-polarized macrophages. Single cell RNASeq analyses showed that the MTFs express many transcripts implicated in cancer progression, LINE1 retrotransposons, and very high levels of several long non-coding transcripts involved in metastasis (such as MALAT1). When cultured MTFs were transplanted orthotopically into mouse pancreas, they grew as obvious well-differentiated islands of cells, but they also disseminated widely throughout multiple tissues in "stealth" fashion. They we

SUBMITTER: Clawson GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5619717 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature