Melanoma miRNA trafficking controls tumour primary niche formation.
Here, we show that melanoma cells directly affect the formation of the dermal tumor niche by microRNA trafficking before invasion. Melanocytes, cells of melanoma origin, are specialized in releasing pigment vesicles, termed melanosomes.
“Melanoma originates in the epidermis and becomes metastatic after invasion into the dermis. Prior interactions between melanoma cells and dermis are poorly studied.”
Keywords
Starting from clinical evidence, we uncovered a communication route between melanoma cells and the microenvironment that contributes to the generation of the tumour primary niche by fibroblast accumulation in the dermis before melanoma invasion. Although α-SMA expression is a major characteristic of CAFs, we did not observe an expression increase following melanosome treatment or miR-211 expression.