• Shi Qiu, Yaqi Qiu, Linghui Deng, Ling Nie, Liming Ge, Xiaonan Zheng, Di Jin, Kun Jin, Xianghong Zhou, Xingyang Su, Boyu Cai, Jiakun Li, Xiang Tu, Lina Gong, Liangren Liu, Zhenhua Liu, Yige Bao, Jianzhong Ai, Tianhai Lin, Lu Yang, and Qiang Wei.
• Department of Urology, Institute of Urology, National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics and Center of Biomedical Big Data, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610041, China.
• Chin. Med. J. 2024 Jan 20; 137 (2): 209221209-221.

BackgroundBladder cancer, characterized by a high potential of tumor recurrence, has high lifelong monitoring and treatment costs. To date, tumor cells with intrinsic softness have been identified to function as cancer stem cells in several cancer types. Nonetheless, the existence of soft tumor cells in bladder tumors remains elusive. Thus, our study aimed to develop a micro-barrier microfluidic chip to efficiently isolate deformable tumor cells from distinct types of bladder cancer cells.MethodsThe stiffness of bladder cancer cells was determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The modified microfluidic chip was utilized to separate soft cells, and the 3D Matrigel culture system was to maintain the softness of tumor cells. Expression patterns of integrin β8 (ITGB8), protein kinase B (AKT), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) were determined by Western blotting. Double immunostaining was conducted to examine the interaction between F-actin and tripartite motif containing 59 (TRIM59). The stem-cell-like characteristics of soft cells were explored by colony formation assay and in vivo studies upon xenografted tumor models.ResultsUsing our newly designed microfluidic approach, we identified a small fraction of soft tumor cells in bladder cancer cells. More importantly, the existence of soft tumor cells was confirmed in clinical human bladder cancer specimens, in which the number of soft tumor cells was associated with tumor relapse. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the biomechanical stimuli arising from 3D Matrigel activated the F-actin/ITGB8/TRIM59/AKT/mTOR/glycolysis pathways to enhance the softness and tumorigenic capacity of tumor cells. Simultaneously, we detected a remarkable up-regulation in ITGB8, TRIM59, and phospho-AKT in clinical bladder recurrent tumors compared with their non-recurrent counterparts.ConclusionsThe ITGB8/TRIM59/AKT/mTOR/glycolysis axis plays a crucial role in modulating tumor softness and stemness. Meanwhile, the soft tumor cells become more sensitive to chemotherapy after stiffening, that offers new insights for hampering tumor progression and recurrence.Copyright © 2024 The Chinese Medical Association, produced by Wolters Kluwer, Inc. under the CC-BY-NC-ND license.

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