期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2016
卷号:113
期号:41
页码:E6219-E6227
DOI:10.1073/pnas.1613332113
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:Cells in the tumor microenvironment may be reprogrammed by tumor-derived metabolites. Cholesterol-oxidized products, namely oxysterols, have been shown to favor tumor growth directly by promoting tumor cell growth and indirectly by dampening antitumor immune responses. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms governing oxysterol generation within tumor microenvironments remain elusive. We recently showed that tumor-derived oxysterols recruit neutrophils endowed with protumoral activities, such as neoangiogenesis. Here, we show that hypoxia inducible factor-1a (HIF-1α) controls the overexpression of the enzyme Cyp46a1, which generates the oxysterol 24-hydroxycholesterol (24S-HC) in a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET) model commonly used to study neoangiogenesis. The activation of the HIF-1α–24S-HC axis ultimately leads to the induction of the angiogenic switch through the positioning of proangiogenic neutrophils in proximity to Cyp46a1+ islets. Pharmacologic blockade or genetic inactivation of oxysterols controls pNET tumorigenesis by dampening the 24S-HC–neutrophil axis. Finally, we show that in some human pNET samples Cyp46a1 transcripts are overexpressed, which correlate with the HIF-1α target VEGF and with tumor diameter. This study reveals a layer in the angiogenic switch of pNETs and identifies a therapeutic target for pNET patients.