The cancer glycocalyx mediates intravascular adhesion and extravasation during metastatic dissemination.

ABSTRACT: The glycocalyx on tumor cells has been recently identified as an important driver for cancer progression, possibly providing critical opportunities for treatment. Metastasis, in particular, is often the limiting step in the survival to cancer, yet our understanding of how tumor cells escape the vascular system to initiate metastatic sites remains limited. Using an in vitro model of the human microvasculature, we assess here the importance of the tumor and vascular glycocalyces during tumor cell extravasation. Through selective manipulation of individual components of the glycocalyx, we reveal a mechanism whereby tumor cells prepare an adhesive vascular niche by depositing components of the glycocalyx along the endothelium. Accumulated hyaluronic acid shed by tumor cells subsequently mediat

SUBMITTER: Offeddu GS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7910477 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature