Biophysical interplay between extracellular matrix remodeling and hypoxia signaling in regulating cancer metastasis

Sun-Ah Lee; Gi-Ju Cho; Doyoung Kim; Dong-Hwee Kim

doi:10.3389/fcell.2024.1335636

Biophysical interplay between extracellular matrix remodeling and hypoxia signaling in regulating cancer metastasis

Front Cell Dev Biol. 2024 Mar 13:12:1335636. doi: 10.3389/fcell.2024.1335636. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Sun-Ah Lee^#¹, Gi-Ju Cho^#¹, Doyoung Kim¹, Dong-Hwee Kim^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
² Department of Integrative Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
³ Biomedical Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Mechanical properties of the tumor microenvironment play a critical role in cancer progression by activation of cancer mechano-responses. The biophysical interactions between cancer cells and their dynamic microenvironment are attributed to force-dependent alterations in molecular pathways that trigger the structural reorganization of intracellular organelles and their associated genetic modifications. Recent studies underscore the role of oxygen concentration in cancer metastasis. Suppressed oxygen levels promote the development of invasive phenotypes and aggressive proliferation of cancer cells, accompanied by remodeling of tumor microenvironment encompassing the modulation of physical settings of extracellular matrix. This review summarizes the role of biophysical interactions between cancer cells and their surroundings in determining cancer progression. Biophysical interpretation of the tumor microenvironment and cancer progression could provide further insights into the development of novel biomedical technologies for therapeutic cancer treatment.

Keywords: ECM remodeling; cancer biophysics; cancer metastasis; hypoxia; mechano-regulation; mechano-signaling; tumor-microenvironment.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. DK was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022M3H4A1A03067401, 2V09840-23-P024, RS-2023-00251315, RS-2023-00221182, 2021R1A5A2022318) and ICT Creative Consilience Program through the Institute of Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (IITP-2024-2020-0-01819). This study was supported by the KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology.