Deciphering CRC-Hepatocyte Interactions: A Multiomic Platform for Interrogation of Metabolic Crosstalk in the Liver-Tumor Microenvironment

Metabolic reprogramming is a hallmark of cancer, enabling tumor cells to adapt to and exploit their microenvironment for sustained growth. The liver is a common site of metastasis, but the interactions between tumor cells and hepatocytes remain poorly understood. In the context of liver metastasis, these interactions play a crucial role in promoting tumor survival and progression. This study leverages multiomics coverage of the microenvironment via liquid chromatography and high-resolution, high-mass accuracy mass spectrometry-based untargeted metabolomics, stable isotope tracing, and RNA sequencing to uncover the metabolic impact of co-localized primary hepatocytes and a colon adenocarcinoma cell line, SW480, using a 2D co-culture model. Metabolic profiling revealed disrupted Warburg metabolism with an 80% decrease in glucose consumption and 94% decrease in lactate production by hepatocyte-SW480 co-cultures relative to SW480 control cultures. Decreased glucose consumption was coupled with alterations in glutamine and ketone body metabolism, suggesting a possible fuel switch upon co-culturing. Further, integrated multiomic analysis indicates disruptions in metabolic pathways, including nucleoside biosynthesis, amino acids, and TCA cycle, correlate with altered SW480 transcriptional profiles and highlight the importance of oxygen homeostasis in tumor adaptation. Finally, these findings were replicated in 3-dimensional microtissue organoids supporting a bioinformatic approach for studying metabolic crosstalk and discovery of potential therapeutic targets in preclinical models of the tumor microenvironment. This accession data consists of 2D culture and 3D organoids of SW480 cells with and without 3T3-J2 cells and/or Hepatocytes. 2D culture data is three replicates of SW480 cells, three replicates of SW480+3T3-J2 cells, and three replicates of SW480+3T3-J2 cells+Hepatocytes. 3D organoid data is three replicates of SW480+3T3-J2 cells and three replicates of SW480+J2 cells+Hepatocytes.