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Researchers have found that the extracellular matrix, the dense network of proteins and carbohydrates that surround a cell, can influence how cells move within the body by regulating their sugar consumption. Acute changes in a single component of the extracellular matrix can trigger a very rapid change in the metabolism and migration of the cell.
Given its importance in the growth and migration in cancer cells, researchers have intensely studied how glucose metabolism can be regulated in response to a variety of both internal and external cues. But little research has focused on the relationship between metabolism and changes in specific components of the extracellular matrix the dense network of proteins and carbohydrates that surround the cell which occur during normal development and in disease progression.
While analyzing breast tumors from patients and breast cancer cell lines for genes that influence glucose metabolism, the researchers made the surprising discovery that among the genes most tightly associated with a high rate of glucose metabolism was a receptor for a core component of the extracellular matrix, hyaluronan.
Changes in the structure or composition of the extracellular matrix might affect metabolism. The researchers confirmed that hypothesis by modulating the levels of hyaluronic acid around the cells and measuring subsequent changes in their rate of glucose metabolism. Creating new treatments for cancer that work by targeting tumors in a way that undercuts the cells’ ability to metabolize sugar can work better.
Targeting the cell directly may alter tumor metabolism by targeting the
extracellular matrix. Differences in nutrient consumption among the cancer cells within a single tumor mass may align with differences in their tendency to migrate. Cells with a higher rate of glucose metabolism may inctrease the migration to other parts of the body, or metastasis.
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