The function of bone microenvironment in hepatocellular carcinoma metastasis (PRJCA036256)
The alterations in the bone microenvironment during hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) growth and metastasis have not been completely elucidated. In this study, we conducted scRNA-seq to investigate changes in the bone microenvironment when HCC subcutaneous tumors reached approximately 1.5 cm? in size, showing evident lung macrometastasis but no bone macrometastasis. Our findings reveal an increase in myeloid cells and a decrease in lymphocyte cells alongside enhanced osteo-lineage cells in the bones of HCC-tumor-bearing mice compared to tumor-free mice.  The extracellular vesicles (EVs) from HCC cells (HCC-derived EVs), compared with PBS, could enhance osteoblast differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (BMSCs).We also performed bulk RNA-seq on BMSCs differentiated into osteoblasts treated with HCC cells-derived EVs and PBS. Following the analysis of upregulated genes analysis, we identified a significant elevation in C-X-C chemokine motif ligand 5 (Cxcl5), which encodes CXCL5 and could mediate osteogenic activity.