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Updated: Jun 5, 2025

Measuring Bone Remodeling and Recreating the Tumor-Bone Microenvironment Using Calvaria Co-culture and Histomorphometry
Published on: March 14, 2020
How the bone microenvironment shapes the pre-metastatic niche and metastasis
Kailey N Jackett1, Alice T Browne1, Etan R Aber1
1Pediatric Oncology Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Abstract:
The bone is a frequent metastatic site, with changes in the mineralized bone and the bone marrow milieu that can also prime other sites for metastasis by educating progenitor cells to support metastatic spread. Stromal and immune populations cooperatively maintain the organizationally complex bone niches and are dysregulated in the presence of a distant primary tumor and metastatic disease. Interrogating the bone niches that facilitate metastatic spread using innovative technologies holds the potential to aid in preventing metastasis in and mediated by the bone. Here, we review recent advances in bone niche biology and its adaptations in the context of cancer.
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