Browsing by Author "Menegaz, Brian A."
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Item 3D tissue-engineered model of Ewing's sarcoma(Elsevier, 2014) Lamhamedi-Cherradi, Salah-Eddine; Santoro, Marco; Ramammoorthy, Vandhana; Menegaz, Brian A.; Bartholomeusz, Geoffrey; Iles, Lakesla R.; Amin, Hesham M.; Livingston, J. Andrew; Mikos, Antonios G.; Ludwig, Joseph A.Despite longstanding reliance upon monolayer culture for studying cancer cells, and numerous advantages from both a practical and experimental standpoint, a growing body of evidence suggests that more complex three-dimensional (3D) models are necessary to properly mimic many of the critical hallmarks associated with the oncogenesis, maintenance and spread of Ewing's sarcoma (ES), the second most common pediatric bone tumor. And as clinicians increasingly turn to biologically-targeted therapies that exert their effects not only on the tumor cells themselves, but also on the surrounding extracellular matrix, it is especially important that preclinical models evolve in parallel to reliably measure antineoplastic effects and possible mechanisms of de novo and acquired drug resistance. Herein, we highlight a number of innovative methods used to fabricate biomimetic ES tumors, encompassing both the surrounding cellular milieu and the extracellular matrix (ECM), and suggest potential applications to advance our understanding of ES biology, preclinical drug testing, and personalized medicine.Item Transcriptional activators YAP/TAZ and AXL orchestrate dedifferentiation, cell fate, and metastasis in human osteosarcoma(Springer Nature, 2021) Lamhamedi-Cherradi, Salah-Eddine; Mohiuddin, Sana; Mishra, Dhruva K.; Krishnan, Sandhya; Velasco, Alejandra Ruiz; Vetter, Amelia M.; Pence, Kristi; McCall, David; Truong, Danh D.; Cuglievan, Branko; Menegaz, Brian A.; Utama, Budi; Daw, Najat C.; Molina, Eric R.; Zielinski, Rafal J.; Livingston, John A.; Gorlick, Richard; Mikos, Antonios G.; Kim, Min P.; Ludwig, Joseph A.Osteosarcoma (OS) is a molecularly heterogeneous, aggressive, poorly differentiated pediatric bone cancer that frequently spreads to the lung. Relatively little is known about phenotypic and epigenetic changes that promote lung metastases. To identify key drivers of metastasis, we studied human CCH-OS-D OS cells within a previously described rat acellular lung (ACL) model that preserves the native lung architecture, extracellular matrix, and capillary network. This system identified a subset of cells—termed derived circulating tumor cells (dCTCs)—that can migrate, intravasate, and spread within a bioreactor-perfused capillary network. Remarkably, dCTCs highly expressed epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated transcription factors (EMT-TFs), such as ZEB1, TWIST, and SOX9, which suggests that they undergo cellular reprogramming toward a less differentiated state by coopting the same epigenetic machinery used by carcinomas. Since YAP/TAZ and AXL tightly regulate the fate and plasticity of normal mesenchymal cells in response to microenvironmental cues, we explored whether these proteins contributed to OS metastatic potential using an isogenic pair of human OS cell lines that differ in AXL expression. We show that AXL inhibition significantly reduced the number of MG63.2 pulmonary metastases in murine models. Collectively, we present a laboratory-based method to detect and characterize a pure population of dCTCs, which provides a unique opportunity to study how OS cell fate and differentiation contributes to metastatic potential. Though the important step of clinical validation remains, our identification of AXL, ZEB1, and TWIST upregulation raises the tantalizing prospect that EMT-TF-directed therapies might expand the arsenal of therapies used to combat advanced-stage OS.