The crosstalk between breast carcinoma-associated fibroblasts and cancer cells promotes RhoA-dependent invasion via IGF-1 and PAI-1.

ABSTRACT: Carcinoma-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) can remodel the extracellular matrix to promote cancer cell invasion, but the paracrine signaling between CAFs and cancer cells that regulates tumor cell migration remains to be identified. To determine how the interaction between CAFs and cancer cells modulates the invasiveness of cancer cells, we developed a 3-dimensional co-culture model composed of breast cancer (BC) MDA-MB-231 cell spheroids embedded in a collagen gel with and without CAFs. We found that the crosstalk between CAFs and cancer cells promotes invasion by stimulating the scattering of MDA-MB-231 cells, which was dependent on RhoA/ROCK/phospho MLC signaling in cancer cells but independent of RhoA in CAFs. The activation of RhoA/ROCK in cancer cells activates MLC and increases migrati

SUBMITTER: Daubriac J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5828213 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature