Pulled into Shape

Much like healthy tissues, cancers have needs. A blood supply brings both nutrients and oxygen, and developing cancers often encourage new blood vessels to form – a process called angiogenesis. Highlighted in red here, healthy endothelial cells similar to those lining human blood vessels, are pulled into new 'sprouting' patterns by the tips of mutant cells (green) similar to those found in cancer. Captured overnight under a powerful microscope, the reshaping of the healthy cells slows down or stops as the mutant cells lose contact. Researchers believe cancerous cells may use mechanical pulling forces help to 'reprogram' nearby vessels, like training a vine to grow up a wall, albeit 10,000-times smaller. Understanding the relationships between cancerous and healthy cells is vital to preventing invasion of nearby tissues, perhaps turning this need for blood into a targetable weakness in forms of cancer like cavernous haemangioma.

Written by John Ankers

• Video from work by Apeksha Shapeti and colleagues
• KU Leuven, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Biomechanics section, Leuven, Belgium
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Nature Communications, October 2024