Friend and foe: the regulation network of ascites components in ovarian cancer progression

Mechanical forces and enzymatic digestion act together to induce the remodeling of collagen fibrils in tumor microenvironment

Cancer is a serious disease in human beings, and its high lethality is mainly due to the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells. Clinically, the accumulation and high orientation of collagen fibrils were observed in cancerous tissue, which occurred not only at the location of invasion but also at 10-20 cm from the tumor. Studies indicated that the invasion of cancer cells could be guided by the oriented collagen fibrils, even in a dense matrix characterized by difficulty degradation. So, the orientation of collagen fibrils is closely related to invasion by cancer cells. However, the formation of the orientation of collagen fibrils remains insufficiently studied. A microfluidic chip-based collagen fibril tissue model was established to demonstrate its underlying mechanism. In this article, the dynamic mechanism of collagen fibril reconstruction from free orientation to high orientation was investigated at the mesoscopic dynamic level. In the experiment, the mechanical forces from interstitial flow and cell deformation were confirmed as significant factors for collagen fibril remodeling. Additionally, enzymes were confirmed as an another inducer to reconstruct the morphology of collagen fibrils, the mechanism of which was chemical degradation and recombination. Interstitial flow combined with an enzyme is an excellent combination for remodeling the distal collagen fibrils of a tumor, and this phenomenon was caught in a microfluidic platform with a micro-dose. This study to some extent answers the question of the kinetic mechanism of collagen fibril remodeling, and is expected to provide support for further proposed strategies to inhibit the orientation reconstruction of collagen fibrils and cancer treatment and prognosis.

Malignancy of Malignant Ascites: A Comprehensive Review of Interplay between Biochemical Variables, Tumor Microenvironment and Growth Factors

Malignant ascites, a buildup of fluid in the abdominal cavity, is a serious consequence of many malignancies. This review aims to comprehend the biochemical makeup of malignant ascites, such as pH, cholesterol, protein, etc., which is crucial to developing therapeutics with better treatment outcomes and hence correlate with corresponding prognostic value. The unique tumour microenvironment exhibited by malignant ascites and the crosstalk between inflammatory cells, cytokines and chemokines, interactions between tumour and non-tumour cell types, activation of vital cell signalling pathways within the TME for VEGF-regulated sustained angiogenesis, cancer progression and metastasis is highlighted. This review addresses the need to develop comprehensive assay platforms to identify various biochemical aspects of ascites, to discover the interactions of the tumour microenvironment and to study VEGF-regulated permeability that can expedite early diagnosis and progression of ascites.

The high-grade serous ovarian cancer metastasis and chemoresistance in 3D models

High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is the most frequent and aggressive type of epithelial ovarian cancer, with high recurrence rate and chemoresistance being the main issues in its clinical management. HGSOC is specifically challenging due to the metastatic dissemination via spheroids in the ascitic fluid. The HGSOC spheroids represent the invasive and chemoresistant cellular fraction, which is impossible to investigate in conventional two-dimensional (2D) monolayer cell cultures lacking critical cell-to-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions. Three-dimensional (3D) HGSOC cultures, where cells aggregate and exhibit relevant interactions, offer a promising in vitro model of peritoneal metastasis and multicellular drug resistance. This review summarizes recent studies of HGSOC in 3D culture conditions and highlights the role of multicellular HGSOC spheroids and ascitic environment in HGSOC metastasis and chemoresistance.