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

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

Scientific Reports

Springer Nature Limited

Lugar: NY; Año: 2019 vol. 9

hyroid cancer is the most common endocrine malignancy. Anaplastic thyroid cancer is one of the most aggressive thyroid tumors. It is known that activation of oncogenes and/or inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in tumor cells promotes 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 cells contribute to thyroid carcinogenesis. We first characterized the phenotypic changes of human fibroblasts in vitro through co-cultures by using transwells as well as by using anaplastic thyroid cancer cells-derived conditioned media. We found that fibroblasts acquired an activated phenotype or also known as cancer-associated fibroblast phenotype after being in contact with soluble factors secreted from anaplasti