A subtype of cancer-associated fibroblasts with lower expression of alpha-smooth muscle actin suppresses stemness through BMP4 in oral carcinoma.

ABSTRACT: Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) demonstrate the characteristics of myofibroblast differentiation by often expressing the ultrastructure of alpha-smooth muscle actin (αSMA). However, heterogeneity among cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), with respect to αSMA expression, has been demonstrated in several clinical studies of oral cancer. Like normal stem cells, stem-like cancer cells (SLCCs) are also regulated extrinsically by its microenvironment; therefore, we postulated that the heterogeneous oral-CAFs would differently regulate oral-SLCCs. Using transcriptomics, we clearly demonstrated that the gene expression differences between oral tumor-derived CAFs were indeed the molecular basis of heterogeneity. This also grouped these CAFs in two distinct clusters, which were named as C1 an

SUBMITTER: Patel AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6172238 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature