Interplay of fibroblasts with anaplastic tumor cells promotes follicular thyroid cancer progression

FOZZATTI, LAURA; ALAMINO, VANINA; PARK, SUNMI; GIUSIANO, LUCILA; VOLPINI, XIMENA; ZHAO LI; STEMPIN, CINTHIA; DONADIO, ANA CAROLINA; SHEUE-YANN CHENG; PELLIZAS CLAUDIA GABRIELA

Scientific reports

Springer Nature

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2019 vol. 9

hyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) is one of the most aggressive thyroid tumors. It has been widely described that activation of oncogenes and/or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in tumor cells promote tumorigenesis. The microenvironment of the tumor also plays a key role on cancer development and progression in a variety of tumors. However, the mechanisms by which tumor-stroma crosstalk in thyroid cancer remains poorly characterized. In this study we aimed to understand how interactions between fibroblasts and anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) cells contribute to thyroid carcinogenesis process. We characterized first the phenotypic changes of human fibroblasts in vitro through co-cultures by using transwells as well as by using ATC cells-derived conditioned media (CM). We found that fibroblasts acquired an activated phenotype or also known as cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) phenotype after being in contact with soluble factor