Browsing by Author "Fuenzalida, Patricia"

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    Coagulation Factor Xa Promotes Solid Tumor Growth, Experimental Metastasis and Endothelial Cell Activation.
    (2019) Arce, Maximiliano; Pinto, Mauricio P.; Galleguillos, Macarena; Muñoz, Catalina; Lange, Soledad; Ramirez, Carolina; Erices, Rafaela; Gonzalez, Pamela; Velasquez, Ethel; Tempio, Fabián; Lopez, Mercedes N.; Salazar-Onfray, Flavio; Cautivo, Kelly; Kalergis, Alexis M.; Cruz, Sebastián; Lladser, Álvaro; Lobos-González, Lorena; Valenzuela, Guillermo; Olivares, Nixa; Sáez, Claudia; Koning, Tania; Sánchez, Fabiola A.; Fuenzalida, Patricia; Godoy, Alejandro; Contreras Orellana, Pamela; Leyton, Lisette; Lugano, Roberta; Dimberg, Anna; Quest, Andrew F.G.; Owen, Gareth I.
    Hypercoagulable state is linked to cancer progression; however, the precise role of the coagulation cascade is poorly described. Herein, we examined the contribution of a hypercoagulative state through the administration of intravenous Coagulation Factor Xa (FXa), on the growth of solid human tumors and the experimental metastasis of the B16F10 melanoma in mouse models. FXa increased solid tumor volume and lung, liver, kidney and lymph node metastasis of tail-vein injected B16F10 cells. Concentrating on the metastasis model, upon coadministration of the anticoagulant Dalteparin, lung metastasis was significantly reduced, and no metastasis was observed in other organs. FXa did not directly alter proliferation, migration or invasion of cancer cells in vitro. Alternatively, FXa upon endothelial cells promoted cytoskeleton contraction, disrupted membrane VE-Cadherin pattern, heightened endothelial-hyperpermeability, increased inflammatory adhesion molecules and enhanced B16F10 adhesion under flow conditions. Microarray analysis of endothelial cells treated with FXa demonstrated elevated expression of inflammatory transcripts. Accordingly, FXa treatment increased immune cell infiltration in mouse lungs, an effect reduced by dalteparin. Taken together, our results suggest that FXa increases B16F10 metastasis via endothelial cell activation and enhanced cancer cell-endothelium adhesion advocating that the coagulation system is not merely a bystander in the process of cancer metastasis.
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    Diabetic concentrations of metformin inhibit platelet-mediated ovarian cancer cell progression
    (2017) Erices, R.; Cubillos, Sofía; Aravena, Raúl; Santoro, Felice; Márquez, Mónica; Orellana Walden, Renán Felipe; Ramírez, Carolina; González, Pamela; Fuenzalida, Patricia; Bravo Castillo, María Loreto; Oliva, Bárbara; Kato Cardemil, Sumie Rode; Ibáñez, Carolina; Brañes, Jorge; Bravo, Erasmo; Alonso, Catalina
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    The Differential Paracrine Role of the Endothelium in Prostate Cancer Cells
    (2022) Torres-Estay, Veronica; Mastri, Michalis; Rosario, Spencer; Fuenzalida, Patricia; Echeverria, Carolina E.; Flores, Emilia; Watts, Anica; Cerda-Infante, Javier; Montecinos, Viviana P.; Sotomayor, Paula C.; Amigo, Julio; Escudero, Carlos; Nualart, Francisco; Ebos, John M. L.; Smiraglia, Dominic J.; Godoy, Alejandro S.
    Simple Summary A growing body of literature supports the concept that a tumor mass is under the strict control of the microvascular endothelium and that the perfusion of oxygen and nutrients by capillary vessels to the tumor mass is reinforced by potent paracrine activity from the vascular endothelial cells. In our study, we investigate the biological and molecular implications of the paracrine crosstalk between vascular endothelial cells and prostate cancer cells. Our results indicate that the endothelial cells were able to secrete molecular signals that promote the proliferation and growth of low and highly aggressive prostate cancer cells and selectively increased the migration, invasion and metastatic potential of highly aggressive prostate cancer cells. The molecular analyses indicated that endothelial cells induced a differential effect on gene expression profile when comparing low versus highly aggressive prostate cancer cells, causing an enrichment of epigenetic changes in migratory pathways in highly aggressive prostate cancer cells. In conclusion, our results indicate that endothelial cells release signals that favor tumor growth and aggressiveness and that this interaction may play an important role in the progression of prostate cancer. The survival of patients with solid tumors, such as prostate cancer (PCa), has been limited and fleeting with anti-angiogenic therapies. It was previously thought that the mechanism by which the vasculature regulates tumor growth was driven by a passive movement of oxygen and nutrients to the tumor tissue. However, previous evidence suggests that endothelial cells have an alternative role in changing the behavior of tumor cells and contributing to cancer progression. Determining the impact of molecular signals/growth factors released by endothelial cells (ECs) on established PCa cell lines in vitro and in vivo could help to explain the mechanism by which ECs regulate tumor growth. Using cell-conditioned media collected from HUVEC (HUVEC-CM), our data show the stimulated proliferation of all the PCa cell lines tested. However, in more aggressive PCa cell lines, HUVEC-CM selectively promoted migration and invasion in vitro and in vivo. Using a PCa-cell-line-derived xenograft model co-injected with HUVEC or preincubated with HUVEC-CM, our results are consistent with the in vitro data, showing enhanced tumor growth, increased tumor microvasculature and promoted metastasis. Gene set enrichment analyses from RNA-Seq gene expression profiles showed that HUVEC-CM induced a differential effect on gene expression when comparing low versus highly aggressive PCa cell lines, demonstrating epigenetic and migratory pathway enrichments in highly aggressive PCa cells. In summary, paracrine stimulation by HUVEC increased PCa cell proliferation and tumor growth and selectively promoted migration and metastatic potential in more aggressive PCa cell lines.