Human mesenchymal stem cells preferentially migrate toward highly oncogenic human hepatocellular carcinoma cells with activated EpCAM signaling.

In this study, we show that MSC migration to HCC can be effectively inhibited by TACE and γ-secretase inhibitors that stop the activation of EpCAM signaling event. Silencing of EpCAM expression through siRNA and antibody approaches also resulted in impaired MSC migration. By contrast, increase levels of EpICD proteins in HCC cells and HCC mouse xenografts resulted in enhanced MSC migration. Taken together, these findings show that MSC is drawn to the more oncogenic population of HCC, and could potentially serve as a cell-based carrier of therapeutic genes to target EpICD-enriched hepatic tumor cells. PMID: 28552849 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Oncotarget - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncotarget Source Type: research