A normal bone marrow microenvironment plays a very important role in the normal functioning of hematopoietic stem cells. Once disturbed, this microenvironment can become favorable for the occurrence of blood disorders, cancers, and other diseases. Therefore, further studies on the bone marrow microenvironment should be performed to reveal regulatory and stem cell fate determination mechanisms a...

The tumor hypoxic microenvironment not only induces genetic and epigenetic changes in cells, immature vessels formation for oxygen demand, but also compromises the efficiency of therapeutic interventions. On other hand, conventional approaches which kill cells or destroy blood to block nutrition supply usually facilitate even harsher microenvironment. Thus, simultaneously relieving strained res...

Abstract Many metal complexes not only had excellent cytotoxic antitumor effects but also could function as a positive immunomodulatory to improve by modifying the local tumor microenvironment. Herein, dual-target nanotherapeutics (MP3/ACPP/AE105@NPs) with uPAR targeting and microenvironment-responsive ability was developed using AE105 ligand ACPP peptide locate complex cells. Assisted surface ...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have emerged as key players of intercellular communication and mediate crosstalk between tissues. Metastatic tumors release tumorigenic EVs, capable pre-conditioning distal sites for organotropic metastasis. Growing evidence identifies muscle cell-derived EVs myokines potent mediators cellular differentiation, proliferation, metabolism. Muscle-derived cargo other bi...

Over the last decade, extensive studies have been made to understand the role played by the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) in cancer. Knowledge in this field has been gained from discoveries in basic research as well as from observations made in patients treated with allosteric mTOR inhibitors such as rapamycin. Despite promising preclinical studies, targeting mTOR in cancer therapy has s...

Dendritic cells (DCs) play a pivotal role in the tumor microenvironment, which is known to affect disease progression in many human malignancies. Infiltration by mature, active DCs into the tumors confers an increase in immune activation and recruitment of disease-fighting immune effector cells and pathways. DCs are the preferential target of infiltrating T cells. However, tumor cells have mean...

Distant metastasis to specific target organs is responsible for over 90% of breast cancer-related deaths, but the underlying molecular mechanism is unclear. Mounting evidence suggests that the interplay between breast cancer cells and the target organ microenvironment is the key determinant of organ-specific metastasis of this lethal disease. Here, we highlight new findings and concepts concern...

Mechanical forces play an important role in regulating cellular function and have been shown to modulate cellular response to other factors in the cellular microenvironment. Presently, no technique exists to rapidly screen for the effects of a range of uniform mechanical forces on cellular function. In this work, we developed and characterized a novel microfabricated array capable of simultaneo...

This microfluidic flow-stretch chip integrates fluid shear stress (FSS) and cyclic stretch (CS), two major mechanical stimulations in cardiovascular systems, for cultured cells. The model chip can deliver FSS and CS simultaneously or independently to vascular cells to mimic the haemodynamic microenvironment of blood vessels in vivo. By imposing FSS-only, CS-only, and FSS+CS stimulation on rat m...

Presentation of the conference The 30Annual Conference of Italian Association of Cell Cultures (AICC) was held at Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, in Milan, on November 27–28, 2017, with the Scientific Coordination of Claudia Chiodoni and Mario Paolo Colombo, from the same Institute. The conference was opened by Katia Scotlandi, President of the Italian Association of Cell Cultur...