In Vivo Imaging of Tumor-Propagating Cells, Regional Tumor Heterogeneity, and Dynamic Cell Movements in Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma
Menée sur un poisson zèbre transgénique modélisant un rhabdomyosarcome embryonnaire , cette étude d'imagerie in vivo met en évidence le rôle joué par des cellules cancéreuses spécifiques dans le processus métastatique
Embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma (ERMS) is an aggressive pediatric sarcoma of muscle. Here, we show that ERMS-propagating potential is confined to myf5+ cells and can be visualized in live, fluorescent transgenic zebrafish. During early tumor growth, myf5+ ERMS cells reside adjacent normal muscle fibers. By late-stage ERMS, myf5+ cells are reorganized into distinct regions separated from differentiated tumor cells. Time-lapse imaging of late-stage ERMS revealed that myf5+ cells populate newly formed tumor only after seeding by highly migratory myogenin+ ERMS cells. Moreover, myogenin+ ERMS cells can enter the vasculature, whereas myf5+ ERMS-propagating cells do not. Our data suggest that non-tumor-propagating cells likely have important supportive roles in cancer progression and facilitate metastasis. º Functional heterogeneity of ERMS cells can be visualized in live zebrafish º Tumor-propagating potential is restricted to myf5+ ERMS cells º myogenin+ ERMS cells are highly invasive and colonize new areas of growth º Metastatic and ERMS-propagating potential resides in distinct cell subpopulations
Cancer Cell 2012