A reconfigurable microscale assay enables insights into cancer-associated fibroblast modulation of immune cell recruitment
Year: 2021
Type: article
Abstract: Innate immune cell infiltration into neoplastic tissue is the first line of defense against cancer and can play a deterministic role in tumor progression. Here, we describe a series of assays, using a reconfigurable microscale assay platform (i.e. Stacks), which allows the study of immune cell infiltration in vitro with spatiotemporal manipulations. We assembled Stacks assays to investigate tumor-monocyte interactions, re-education of activated macrophages, and neutrophil infiltration. For the first time in vitro, the Stacks infiltration assays reveal that primary tumor-associated fibroblasts from specific patients differ from that associated with the benign region of the prostate in their ability to limit neutrophil infiltration as well as facilitate monocyte adhesion and anti-inflammatory monocyte polarization. These results show that fibroblasts play a regulatory role in immune cell infiltration and that Stacks has the potential to predict individual patients' cancer-immune response.
Source: Integrative Biology
Institutions: University of Wisconsin–Madison, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research At MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Wisconsin System, University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Language: English
Topic: Immune cells in cancer
Subfield: Immunology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3150467866