Abstract 1695: Imaging of the interaction of pancreatic cancer and stellate cells during liver metastasis

Abstract Pancreatic stellate cells are involved in fibrosis of pancreatic cancer. An understanding of pancreatic cancer-cell interactions with stellate cells is critical to our ability to develop effective anti-tumor therapeutics for pancreatic cancer. We report here imaging of the interaction of pancreatic cancer cells and pancreatic stellate cells in liver metastasis. Human pancreatic cancer cell lines (XPA1 and MiaPaCa-2) were engineered to express green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the nucleus and red fluorescent protein (RFP) in the cytoplasm. Pancreatic stellate cells, engineered to express RFP, were co-injected with the cancer cells into the spleen of transgenic cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) nude mice. Three hours after splenic injection dual-color pancreatic cancer cells and pancreatic stellate cells were found distributed in the host liver. Seven days after cancer cell-stellate cell co-injection, most pancreatic cancer cells and stellate cells were dead. However, by 28 days after injection, liver metastases were observed in the host CFP nude mice. With the high-resolution intravital imaging afforded by the Olympus FV1000 confocal microscope, the interaction of the dual-colored pancreatic cancer cells and the RFP-expressing pancreatic stellate cells could be clearly imaged in the liver metastasis, suggesting that stellate cells participate in metastasis formation. Our hypothesis is that pancreatic stellate cells form a niche for liver metastasis of pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1695. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1695