Browsing by Author "Niu, Yichi"

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    Contextual cues from cancer cells govern cancer-associated fibroblast heterogeneity
    (Cell Press, 2021) Bota-Rabassedas, Neus; Banerjee, Priyam; Niu, Yichi; Cao, Wenjian; Luo, Jiayi; Xi, Yuanxin; Tan, Xiaochao; Sheng, Kuanwei; Ahn, Young-Ho; Lee, Sieun; Parra, Edwin Roger; Rodriguez-Canales, Jaime; Albritton, Jacob; Weiger, Michael; Liu, Xin; Guo, Hou-Fu; Yu, Jiang; Rodriguez, B. Leticia; Firestone, Joshua J.A.; Mino, Barbara; Creighton, Chad J.; Solis, Luisa M.; Villalobos, Pamela; Raso, Maria Gabriela; Sazer, Daniel W.; Gibbons, Don L.; Russell, William K.; Longmore, Gregory D.; Wistuba, Ignacio I.; Wang, Jing; Chapman, Harold A.; Miller, Jordan S.; Zong, Chenghang; Kurie, Jonathan M.; Bioengineering
    Cancer cells function as primary architects of the tumor microenvironment. However, the molecular features of cancer cells that govern stromal cell phenotypes remain unclear. Here, we show that cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) heterogeneity is driven by lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) cells at either end of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) spectrum. LUAD cells that have high expression of the EMT-activating transcription factor ZEB1 reprogram CAFs through a ZEB1-dependent secretory program and direct CAFs to the tips of invasive projections through a ZEB1-driven CAF repulsion process. The EMT, in turn, sensitizes LUAD cells to pro-metastatic signals from CAFs. Thus, CAFs respond to contextual cues from LUAD cells to promote metastasis.