Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2009. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Cancer cell invasion and metastasis are hallmarks of cancer. It is becoming apparent that the interaction between cancer cells and the surrounding microenvironment are involved in their ability to invade and metastasise. In general, cancer cells can either migrate individually, in an amoeboid or mesenchymal manner, or collectively. The first aim of this thesis was to analyse the role of NG2 in amoeboid to mesenchymal transition (AMT) and Rho/ROCK signalling. We found that NG2 promotes an amoeboid morphology, and increased invasiveness, in a Rho-dependent manner. Secondly, we analysed the role of the major tumour microenvironment (TME) component, cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), on melanoma cell invasiveness. We found the CAF interaction with melanoma cells leads to increased levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and IL-8, and this leads to increased invasiveness. Simultaneous blocking of IL-6 and IL-8, using neutralising antibodies, inhibits CAF-dependent invasion. Further analysis of another major component in the melanoma TME, keratinocytes, has highlighted the importance of the tumour cell niche in invasion. Our results indicate that cancer cells have the ability to change morphology, and that the TME plays an important role in melanoma cell invasiveness. Metastatic melanoma treatment has proven...

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové Department of Pharmacology and toxicology Student: Lucie Rozkydalová Supervisor of Diploma thesis: Prof. PharmDr. František Štaud, PhD. Specialized supervisor: Pr. Pierre Cuq PharmD. PhD., Laure-Anaïs Vincent Title of diploma thesis: Differential resistance of melanoma to vinca-alkaloids Malignant melanoma (MM) represents the most dangerous and very aggressive skin tumor with fast development of drug resistance which is the main obstacle in successful treatment of MM. According to previous studies (microarray data analysis), KIT gene, which plays key role in melanoma pathophysiology, was chosen as one of the potential causes of failure of treatment by vinca alkaloids (VAs) because of its complete underexpression in melanoma CAL1 resistant cells (CAL1R-VAs) in comparison with parental cells (CAL1-wt). Moreover, KIT also interacted with NF-κB and cyclin D1-2 proteins involved in chemoresistance of melanoma - inside molecular network built using IPA software. Although KIT underexpression in resistant CAL1 R-VAs cell lines were confirmed (qRTPCR), KIT repression using specific siRNA transfection did not show any effect on in vitro sensibility of CAL1-wt cells to VAs. It signifies that KIT is not directly involved in melanoma resistance...