Modeling TGF-β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics.

Recent works have highlighted a double role for the Transforming Growth Factor β (TGF-β): it inhibits cancer in healthy cells and potentiates tumor progression during late stage of tumorigenicity, respectively; therefore it has been termed the "Jekyll and Hyde" of cancer or, alternatively,...

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Main Authors: Gianluca Ascolani, Pietro Liò
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088533&type=printable
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author Gianluca Ascolani
Pietro Liò
author_facet Gianluca Ascolani
Pietro Liò
author_sort Gianluca Ascolani
collection DOAJ
description Recent works have highlighted a double role for the Transforming Growth Factor β (TGF-β): it inhibits cancer in healthy cells and potentiates tumor progression during late stage of tumorigenicity, respectively; therefore it has been termed the "Jekyll and Hyde" of cancer or, alternatively, an "excellent servant but a bad master". It remains unclear how this molecule could have the two opposite behaviours. In this work, we propose a TGF-β multi scale mathematical model at molecular, cellular and tissue scales. The multi scalar behaviours of the TGF-β are described by three coupled models built up together which can approximatively be related to distinct microscopic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic scales, respectively. We first model the dynamics of TGF-β at the single-cell level by taking into account the intracellular and extracellular balance and the autocrine and paracrine behaviour of TGF-β. Then we use the average estimates of the TGF-β from the first model to understand its dynamics in a model of duct breast tissue. Although the cellular model and the tissue model describe phenomena at different time scales, their cumulative dynamics explain the changes in the role of TGF-β in the progression from healthy to pre-tumoral to cancer. We estimate various parameters by using available gene expression datasets. Despite the fact that our model does not describe an explicit tissue geometry, it provides quantitative inference on the stage and progression of breast cancer tissue invasion that could be compared with epidemiological data in literature. Finally in the last model, we investigated the invasion of breast cancer cells in the bone niches and the subsequent disregulation of bone remodeling processes. The bone model provides an effective description of the bone dynamics in healthy and early stages cancer conditions and offers an evolutionary ecological perspective of the dynamics of the competition between cancer and healthy cells.
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spelling doaj-art-3df552d9c4934f68b27645de539aeb332025-08-20T02:15:29ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0192e8853310.1371/journal.pone.0088533Modeling TGF-β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics.Gianluca AscolaniPietro LiòRecent works have highlighted a double role for the Transforming Growth Factor β (TGF-β): it inhibits cancer in healthy cells and potentiates tumor progression during late stage of tumorigenicity, respectively; therefore it has been termed the "Jekyll and Hyde" of cancer or, alternatively, an "excellent servant but a bad master". It remains unclear how this molecule could have the two opposite behaviours. In this work, we propose a TGF-β multi scale mathematical model at molecular, cellular and tissue scales. The multi scalar behaviours of the TGF-β are described by three coupled models built up together which can approximatively be related to distinct microscopic, mesoscopic, and macroscopic scales, respectively. We first model the dynamics of TGF-β at the single-cell level by taking into account the intracellular and extracellular balance and the autocrine and paracrine behaviour of TGF-β. Then we use the average estimates of the TGF-β from the first model to understand its dynamics in a model of duct breast tissue. Although the cellular model and the tissue model describe phenomena at different time scales, their cumulative dynamics explain the changes in the role of TGF-β in the progression from healthy to pre-tumoral to cancer. We estimate various parameters by using available gene expression datasets. Despite the fact that our model does not describe an explicit tissue geometry, it provides quantitative inference on the stage and progression of breast cancer tissue invasion that could be compared with epidemiological data in literature. Finally in the last model, we investigated the invasion of breast cancer cells in the bone niches and the subsequent disregulation of bone remodeling processes. The bone model provides an effective description of the bone dynamics in healthy and early stages cancer conditions and offers an evolutionary ecological perspective of the dynamics of the competition between cancer and healthy cells.https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088533&type=printable
spellingShingle Gianluca Ascolani
Pietro Liò
Modeling TGF-β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics.
PLoS ONE
title Modeling TGF-β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics.
title_full Modeling TGF-β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics.
title_fullStr Modeling TGF-β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics.
title_full_unstemmed Modeling TGF-β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics.
title_short Modeling TGF-β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics.
title_sort modeling tgf β in early stages of cancer tissue dynamics
url https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0088533&type=printable
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AT pietrolio modelingtgfbinearlystagesofcancertissuedynamics