Poster

Fatty Tissue As An Modulator Of Cancer Cell Mechanics

Eliane Blauth¹, Hans Kubitschke¹, Amelie Zschau¹, Dorit John², Anne Hoffmann², Benjamin Wolf³, Michael Höckel³, Peter Kovacs², Matthias Blüher², Bahriye Aktas³, Josef Alfons Käs¹

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The tumor microenvironment plays an important role in tumorigenesis and during tumor progression. While already significant findings on the influence of the ECM on cell mechanics [1] and the role of fatty tissue in tumor invasion [2] were made, the impact of fatty tissue onto the biomechanics of cancer cells remains elusive even though tumors often grow in the direct vicinity.
Here we show that fatty tissues and cancer cells significantly interact with each other. As a result, the cancerous cells drastically change their phenotypical and biomechanical properties. We quantified these viscoelastic changes with the optical stretcher and motility assays. Further we show that the observed viscoelastic changes are time-dependent and reversible. The cancer cells regain their initial mechanical state when the coculturing and the crosstalk with the fatty tissue are stopped. Our coculture experiments show that cells adapt their mechanical properties not only depending on the ECM and its stiffness but are also influenced by the interaction with adipocytes of the fatty connective tissue. We further find, depending on the cell type, fatty tissue impacts the cell mechanics in opposing directions.
From a biophysical perspective, our results indicate an crucial impact of fatty tissue on cancer, affecting the biomechanical properties of cancer cells in different ways and possibly inducing an unjamming transition.