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Updated: May 27, 2025

A Mouse Model to Investigate the Role of Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Tumor Growth
Published on: December 22, 2020
Single-cell programmed cell death regulator patterns guide intercellular communication of cancer-associated
Kai Yao1, Shuo Zhang1, Bo Zhu2
1School of Clinical Medicine, Bengbu Medical University, Bengbu, China.
Background:
The significance of programmed cell death (PCD) in the context of cancer development and progression is widely acknowledged, yet its specific impact on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) remains a topic of ongoing investigation. Therefore, the study aims to explore the role of PCD in regulating CAFs and its potential implications for CRC progression.
Methods:
CAFs from single-cell data of 23 colorectal cancer (CRC) patients were clustered by non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) and the impact of these subpopulations on the prognosis of CRC patients was predicted using public database cohorts.
Results:
In total, we screened eight PCDs that are associated with significant prognostic impacts for CRC patients, and based on PCD regulators, we defined multiple subpopulations of CAFs associated with PCDs. Additionally, we found that the PCD key regulators may be closely related to the clinical and biological characteristics of CRC and the pseudotime trajectory of major CAFs subpopulations. Bulk RNA sequencing analyses revealed that subpopulations of CAFs mediated by PCD hold prognostic value for CRC patients. CellChat analysis further illustrated the extensive interactions between PCD-associated CAFs subpopulations and tumor epithelial cells. Following Cox regression and survival analyses, it was determined that the paraptosis-mediated CAFs subpopulation had the most pronounced impact on CRC patient prognosis, with DDIT3 identified as a marker protein influencing patient outcomes.
Conclusions:
Our study reveals for the first time how PCD-mediated communication between CAFs regulates tumor growth in CRC patients and influences their prognosis, and has identified that DDIT3+ CAFs associated with paraptosis exhibit the most pronounced influence on the prognosis of individuals with CRC.
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09:52A Mimic of the Tumor Microenvironment: A Simple Method for Generating Enriched Cell Populations and Investigating Intercellular Communication
Published on: September 20, 2016
10:26Assessment of Mitochondrial Health in Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Isolated from 3D Multicellular Lung Tumor Spheroids
Published on: October 21, 2022
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