Crosstalk between Tumor Cells and Macrophages in Stroma Renders Tumor Cells as the Primary Source of MCP-1/CCL2 in Lewis Lung Carcinoma

The chemokine MCP-1/CCL2 is produced by a variety of tumors and plays an important role in cancer progression. We and others previously demonstrated that the primary source of MCP-1 in several mouse tumors, including 4T1 breast cancer, M5076 sarcoma and B16 melanoma, was stromal cells. In the present study, we identified that tumor cells were the primary source of MCP-1 in Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC), because MCP-1 mRNA was highly expressed in tumors grown in both WT and MCP-1-/- mice with elevated serum MCP-1 levels. Since LLC cells isolated from tumors expressed low levels of MCP-1 in vitro, it appeared that the tumor-stromal cell interaction in a tumor microenvironment increased MCP-1 expression in LLC cells. In fact, co-culture of LLC cells with normal mouse peritoneal macrophages or normal lung cells containing macrophages increased MCP-1 expression by LLC cells. Macrophages from TNFα-/- mice failed to activate LLC cells and anti-TNFα neutralizing antibody abolished the effect of WT macrophages on LLC cells. When LLC cells were transplanted into TNFα-/- mice, the levels of MCP-1 mRNA in tumors and serum MCP-1 levels were markedly lower as compared to WT mice, and importantly tumors grew more slowly. Taken together, our results indicate that TNFα released by tumor cell-activated macrophages is critical for increased MCP-1 production by tumors cells. Thus, disruption of tumor-stromal cell interaction may inhibit tumor progression by reducing the production of tumor-promoting proinflammatory mediators, such as MCP-1

Induction of Monocyte Chemoattractant Proteins in Macrophages via the Production of Granulocyte-macrophage Colony Stimulating Factor by Breast Cancer Cells

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1)/CCL2 plays an important role in the initiation and progression of cancer. We previously reported that in 4T1 murine breast cancer, non-tumor stromal cells, including macrophages, were the major source of MCP-1. In the present study, we analyzed the potential mechanisms by which MCP-1 is upregulated in macrophages infiltrating 4T1 tumors. We found that cell-free culture supernatants of 4T1 cells (4T1-sup) markedly upregulated MCP-1 production by peritoneal inflammatory macrophages. 4T1-sup also upregulated other MCPs, such as MCP-3/CCL7 and MCP-5/CCL12, but modestly neutrophil chemotactic chemokines, such as KC/CXCL1 or MIP-2/CXCL2. Physicochemical analysis indicated that an approximately 2 to 3 kDa 4T1 cell product was responsible for the capacity of 4T1-sup to upregulate MCP-1 expression by macrophages. A neutralizing antibody against granulocyte-macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), but not macrophage-colony stimulating factor, almost completely abrogated MCP-1-inducing activity of 4T1-sup, and recombinant GM-CSF potently up-regulated MCP-1 production by macrophages. The expression levels of GM-CSF in 4T1 tumors in vivo were higher than other tumors, such as Lewis lung carcinoma. Treatment of mice with anti-GM-CSF antibody significantly reduced the growth of 4T1 tumors at the injection sites but did not reduce MCP-1 production or lung metastasis in tumor-bearing mice. These results indicate that 4T1 cells have the capacity to directly up-regulate MCP-1 production by macrophages by releasing GM-CSF; however, other mechanisms are also involved in increased MCP-1 levels in the 4T1 tumor microenvironment