Tumor cells have unique energy metabolism phenomena, namely high glucose absorption, aerobic glycolysis and high lactic acid production, which are characterized by down-regulation of related proteins involved in oxidative metabolism in tumor cells, and up-regulation of glucose transporters and monocarboxylate transporters. Studies have shown that drugs that target tumor cell glucose metabolism have the ability to selectively kill tumor cells, bringing new hope for tumor treatment. Tumor stem cells are considered to be the root cause of tumor recurrence, metastasis and poor prognosis, and their energy metabolism characteristics have not yet been agreed. Studies have shown that reversing the energy metabolism of tumor stem cells can increase their chemosensitivity. This article reviews recent studies on tumor and tumor stem cell glucose metabolism and the opportunities and challenges of tumor treatment through targeting glucose metabolism, which might provide new ideas and opportunities for clinical tumor therapy.
Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are pluripotent stem cells with high self-proliferation and multidirectional differentiation potential. They also have other functions including immune regulation, paracrine and so on, playing an important role in repairing injured tissues. In recent years, a lot of research has been done on how MSCs promote skin injury repair, and a lot of progress has been made. Compared with direct injection of MSCs in the wound area, some special treatments or transplantation methods could enhance the ability of MSCs to repair skin injury. This paper mainly discusses the role of MSCs in skin injury repair and technical ways to improve its repairing capacity, and discusses the existing problems in this field and prospects for future research directions.
Objective To review the expression of mechano-growth factor (MGF) and its roles in tissue repairs andregeneration. Methods The l iterature about the expression of MGF and its roles in tissue repairs and regeneration in recentyears was reviewed. Results MGF is sensitive to mechanical stimulation and can be expressed in various tissues/cells. MGF isresponsible for satell ite cell activation, myoblast proliferation, and plays important roles in the treatment of muscle coloboma,prevention of myocardial injury, and neuroprotection. Conclusion The important role of MGF in tissue repairs andregeneration has been identified, however, the detailed mechanisms remain unclear up to now and still need a further study.
Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a pluripotent lipid mediator and acts via different G-protein-couple LPA receptors. LPA has significant effects on several cellular biological behaviours, such as cell migration, invasion, proliferation and differentiation, etc. Cell migration is essential for tumor progression, and vital for stem cell to repair injured tissues. Increasing evidences have demonstrated that LPA dramatically affects migration capacity of various cells, particularly cancer cells and stem cells. In this paper, we review the effect of LPA on migration of cancer cells and stem cells, and discuss the underlying mechanisms. A better understanding of this process will shed new light on tissue regeneration and the prevention of tumor progression.
In this study, we aimed to investigate the influences of conditioned medium from human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) on cancer stem cell phenotype of human hepatoma cells. HUVEC and human hepatoma cells (MHCC97H) were cultured, respectively, and then the MHCC97H cells were co-cultured with conditioned medium from HUVEC (EC-CM) with Transwell system. Anti-cancer drug sensitivity, colony-formation, migration/invasion ability, expression of cancer stem cell marker and sphere formation were performed to determine the cancer stem cell phenotype in MHCC97H cells. We found that MHCC97H cells co-cultured with EC-CM exhibited significantly higher colony-formation ability and lower sensitivity of anti-cancer drugs 5-FU and Cis. Transwell assay showed that treatment with EC-CM obviously increased migration and invasion of MHCC97H cells. Moreover, increased sphere forming capability and expression of CD133 in MHCC97H cells were observed after co-cultured with EC-CM. These results suggested that EC-CM could promote cancer stem cell phenotype of hepatoma cells.