Cell-state transitions and density-dependent interactions together explain the dynamics of spontaneous epithelial-mesenchymal heterogeneity

Autor: Paras Jain, Ramanarayanan Kizhuttil, Madhav B. Nair, Sugandha Bhatia, Erik W. Thompson, Jason T. George, Mohit Kumar Jolly
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: iScience, Vol 27, Iss 7, Pp 110310- (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2589-0042
DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110310
Popis: Summary: Cancer cell populations comprise phenotypes distributed among the epithelial-mesenchymal (E-M) spectrum. However, it remains unclear which population-level processes give rise to the observed experimental distribution and dynamical changes in E-M heterogeneity, including (1) differential growth, (2) cell-state switching, and (3) population density-dependent growth or state-transition rates. Here, we analyze the necessity of these three processes in explaining the dynamics of E-M population distributions as observed in PMC42-LA and HCC38 breast cancer cells. We find that, while cell-state transition is necessary to reproduce experimental observations of dynamical changes in E-M fractions, including density-dependent growth interactions (cooperation or suppression) better explains the data. Further, our models predict that treatment of HCC38 cells with transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) signaling and Janus kinase 2/signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (JAK2/3) inhibitors enhances the rate of mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) instead of lowering that of E-M transition (EMT). Overall, our study identifies the population-level processes shaping the dynamics of spontaneous E-M heterogeneity in breast cancer cells.
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