Breast cancer cells ingest and consume the matrix surrounding them to overcome starvation, according to a new study publishing January 16 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, by Elena Rainero of the University of Sheffield, UK, and colleagues. The finding elucidates a previously unknown mechanism of cancer cell survival, and may offer a new target for therapy development.
Cells in the breast, including tumor cells, are embedded in a meshwork called the extracellular matrix (ECM). Nutrients are scarce in the ECM, due to limited blood flow, and become even scarcer as tumor cells grow. And yet they continue to grow, leading the authors to investigate how tumor cells supply themselves with the raw materials to support that growth.
To do so, they seeded breast adenocarcinoma cells into either collagen (a major component of the ECM) or a commercial matrix preparation, or onto plastic,…
