Interaction with neutrophils promotes gastric cancer cell migration and invasion by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition.

Interaction with neutrophils promotes gastric cancer cell migration and invasion by inducing epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Oncol Rep. 2017 Sep 06;: Authors: Zhang W, Gu J, Chen J, Zhang P, Ji R, Qian H, Xu W, Zhang X Abstract Emerging evidence has revealed that neutrophils have phenotypic and functional plasticity. Neutrophils could be polarized towards a pro-tumor phenotype by tumor-derived factors. In the present study, we investigated the role of the interaction with neutrophils on the functions of gastric cancer cells in vitro. Human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells were induced to differentiate into neutrophil-like cells (HL-60N) using dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Human gastric cancer cells were co-cultured with HL-60N cells or treated with the conditioned medium (CM) of cancer-activated HL-60N cells. The migration and invasion of gastric cancer cells were significantly enhanced while their proliferation was minimally altered. The expression of pro-inflammatory factors including IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, and TNFα was significantly increased in cancer-activated HL-60N cells, which induced the activation of the ERK pathway and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in gastric cancer cells. Blocking the ERK pathway activation reversed the promoting effects of cancer-activated HL-60N cells on gastric cancer cell migration and invasion. In addition, mouse gastric cancer cell derived CM could also increase the expression of ...
Source: Oncology Reports - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncol Rep Source Type: research