Single cell analysis of mechanical properties and EMT-related gene expression profiles in cancer fingers

Heng Zou; Zihan Yang; Yuen-San Chan; Sung-king Au Yeung; Md Kowsar Alam; Tongxu Si; Tao Xu; Mengsu Yang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.103917

Single cell analysis of mechanical properties and EMT-related gene expression profiles in cancer fingers

Heng Zou, Zihan Yang, Yuen-San Chan, Sung-king Au Yeung, Md Kowsar Alam, Tongxu Si, Tao Xu, Mengsu Yang^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

74 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Collective cell migration is associated with cancer metastasis. Cancer fingers are formed when groups of migrating cancer cells follow the leader cells in the front. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical process of cancer metastasis. However, the role of EMT in cancer finger formation remains unclear. In this work, we investigated the EMT-associated mechanical properties and gene expression at single-cell levels in non-small lung cancer fingers. We found that leader cells were more elastic and less sticky than follower cells. Spatial EMT-related gene expression profiling in cancer fingers revealed cellular heterogeneity. Particularly, SNAIL and VIM were found to be two key genes that positively correlated with leader cell phenotypes and controlled cancer finger formation. Silencing either SNAIL or VIM, decreased cancer cell elasticity, cancer finger formation and migration, and increased adhesiveness. These findings indicated that SNAIL and VIM are two driver genes for cancer finger formation.

Original language	English
Article number	103917
Journal	iScience
Volume	25
Issue number	3
Online published	12 Feb 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.103917
Publication status	Published - 18 Mar 2022

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge fruitful discussion with Dr. Zhang Liang of City University of Hong Kong Department of Biomedical Science. The author gratefully acknowledges funding support by a grant from the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFA0901104), Hong Kong Research Grant Council (CityU_11319516) (M.Y), Basic Research Projects of Shenzhen Knowledge Innovation Program (JCYJ20170818095453642 and JCYJ20180307123759162) (MY), and Research Impact Fund (R1020-18F) of the Hong Kong Research Grant Council.

Research Keywords

Cancer
Cell biology
Transcriptomics

Publisher's Copyright Statement

This full text is made available under CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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@article{0925202992dc4033941bc1c8c80bbb32,

title = "Single cell analysis of mechanical properties and EMT-related gene expression profiles in cancer fingers",

abstract = "Collective cell migration is associated with cancer metastasis. Cancer fingers are formed when groups of migrating cancer cells follow the leader cells in the front. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical process of cancer metastasis. However, the role of EMT in cancer finger formation remains unclear. In this work, we investigated the EMT-associated mechanical properties and gene expression at single-cell levels in non-small lung cancer fingers. We found that leader cells were more elastic and less sticky than follower cells. Spatial EMT-related gene expression profiling in cancer fingers revealed cellular heterogeneity. Particularly, SNAIL and VIM were found to be two key genes that positively correlated with leader cell phenotypes and controlled cancer finger formation. Silencing either SNAIL or VIM, decreased cancer cell elasticity, cancer finger formation and migration, and increased adhesiveness. These findings indicated that SNAIL and VIM are two driver genes for cancer finger formation.",

keywords = "Cancer, Cell biology, Transcriptomics",

author = "Heng Zou and Zihan Yang and Yuen-San Chan and Yeung, {Sung-king Au} and Alam, {Md Kowsar} and Tongxu Si and Tao Xu and Mengsu Yang",

year = "2022",

month = mar,

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doi = "10.1016/j.isci.2022.103917",

language = "English",

volume = "25",

number = "3",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Single cell analysis of mechanical properties and EMT-related gene expression profiles in cancer fingers

AU - Zou, Heng

AU - Yang, Zihan

AU - Chan, Yuen-San

AU - Yeung, Sung-king Au

AU - Alam, Md Kowsar

AU - Si, Tongxu

AU - Xu, Tao

AU - Yang, Mengsu

PY - 2022/3/18

Y1 - 2022/3/18

N2 - Collective cell migration is associated with cancer metastasis. Cancer fingers are formed when groups of migrating cancer cells follow the leader cells in the front. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical process of cancer metastasis. However, the role of EMT in cancer finger formation remains unclear. In this work, we investigated the EMT-associated mechanical properties and gene expression at single-cell levels in non-small lung cancer fingers. We found that leader cells were more elastic and less sticky than follower cells. Spatial EMT-related gene expression profiling in cancer fingers revealed cellular heterogeneity. Particularly, SNAIL and VIM were found to be two key genes that positively correlated with leader cell phenotypes and controlled cancer finger formation. Silencing either SNAIL or VIM, decreased cancer cell elasticity, cancer finger formation and migration, and increased adhesiveness. These findings indicated that SNAIL and VIM are two driver genes for cancer finger formation.

AB - Collective cell migration is associated with cancer metastasis. Cancer fingers are formed when groups of migrating cancer cells follow the leader cells in the front. Epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a critical process of cancer metastasis. However, the role of EMT in cancer finger formation remains unclear. In this work, we investigated the EMT-associated mechanical properties and gene expression at single-cell levels in non-small lung cancer fingers. We found that leader cells were more elastic and less sticky than follower cells. Spatial EMT-related gene expression profiling in cancer fingers revealed cellular heterogeneity. Particularly, SNAIL and VIM were found to be two key genes that positively correlated with leader cell phenotypes and controlled cancer finger formation. Silencing either SNAIL or VIM, decreased cancer cell elasticity, cancer finger formation and migration, and increased adhesiveness. These findings indicated that SNAIL and VIM are two driver genes for cancer finger formation.

KW - Cancer

KW - Cell biology

KW - Transcriptomics

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126141884&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/pubmetrics.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85126141884&origin=recordpage

U2 - 10.1016/j.isci.2022.103917

DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2022.103917

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

C2 - 35252814

SN - 2589-0042

VL - 25

JO - iScience

JF - iScience

IS - 3

M1 - 103917

ER -

Single cell analysis of mechanical properties and EMT-related gene expression profiles in cancer fingers

Abstract

Funding

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

UN SDGs

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RIF: Development of an Integrated Microfluidics System for Multi-level High Content Screening of Anti-tumor Drugs

GRF: Development of an Integrated Microfluidic-Based System for Single Cell Mutation Analysis and Drug Sensitivity Test of Circulating Tumor Cells/Cell Clusters

Cite this