title: Interaction Between Gastric Carcinoma Cells and Neural Cells Promotes Perineural Invasion by a Pathway Involving VCAM1.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Perineural invasion (PNI) is one of the important routes for local spread of gastric carcinoma associated with poor prognosis. However, the exact cellular characteristics and molecular mechanisms of PNI are still unclear.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify the interaction between gastric carcinoma cells and neural cells, and whether vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM1) is involved in this process.
  
  
  METHODS
  We adopted in vitro cell coculture assays to investigate the cellular and molecular interaction between gastric cancer cells and neural cells.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We find upregulation of VCAM1 in clinical gastric cancer tissue samples. In in vitro tumor-neural cell coculture system, gastric cancer cells with high level of VCAM1 promote proliferation of neural progenitor cells and induce the process outgrowth and branching of neural cells. Reciprocally, neural cells enhance neurotropic migration and mobility of tumor cells. Repressing VCAM1 function through VCAM1 blocking antibody can attenuate these effects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study indicates that VCAM1 is significantly involved in tumor invasion via mediating nerve-tumor interaction, which is a mutually beneficial process. It is possible that interaction between neural cells and tumor cells might contribute to PNI of gastric carcinoma. Inhibiting the activity of VCAM1 could be a potential strategy targeting PNI in gastric carcinoma therapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Medical College of PLA, Beijing, 100853, People's Republic of China. summerechoxia@163.com.
authors.forename: Qijun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China. bqr11@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn.|School of Life Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China. bqr11@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qing-Ran
authors.initials: QR
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of the PLA Second Artillery Force, Beijing, 100088, People's Republic of China. dongmaosheng007@163.com.
authors.forename: Maosheng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China. Sun_xicai@126.com.
authors.forename: Xicai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Medical College of PLA, Beijing, 100853, People's Republic of China. 787939904@qq.com.
authors.forename: Haihong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Medical College of PLA, Beijing, 100853, People's Republic of China. cuijx_doctor@163.com.
authors.forename: Jianxin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Medical College of PLA, Beijing, 100853, People's Republic of China. xihongqing@126.com.
authors.forename: Hongqin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xi
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China. huxiaoling@tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ling
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People's Republic of China. shenqin@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, General Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Medical College of PLA, Beijing, 100853, People's Republic of China. chenlin301sg@sina.com.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D002450:Cell Communication; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D019070:Cell Lineage; D002465:Cell Movement; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008875:Middle Aged; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D058953:Neural Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D015854:Up-Regulation; D019010:Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1 / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D019010:Vascular Cell Adhesion Molecule-1
keywords: Gastric cancer; Neural cell; Perineural invasion (PNI); VCAM1