When push comes to shove: Airway cells propel liver cancer spread to lungs

(Kanazawa University) Kanazawa University-led Japanese researchers identified a crucial role for air sac-based scavenger blood cells, alveolar macrophages (AMs), in driving hepatocellular cancer metastasis in the lungs. AMs were found to be recruited by interstitial macrophages (IMs) through interactions between the IM-expressed signaling molecule CCL2 and its AM-expressed receptor. AMs then secrete leukotriene B4, which promotes tumor cell growth. This is the first evidence for the distinct roles of AMs and IMs in liver cell lung metastasis.
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news