Polymer thin film promotes tumor spheroid formation via JAK2-STAT3 signaling primed by fibronectin-integrin 5ɑ and sustained by LMO2-LDB1 complex

Cancer stem-like cells (CSCs) are considered as a tempting target due to their role in tumor progression. Although recent studies attempted to obtain and analyze patient-derived CSCs ex vivo, there are limitations in supplying diverse and large quantity of CSCs. Previously, functional polymer thin film (PTF) platform which induces cancer cells transformation into tumorigenic CSCs was invented. Here, we verified the functionality of polymer X, new PTF with a streamlined production process. Polymer X induced tumor spheroid formation and the spheroids showed increase in the expression of CSC-related genes. STAT3 phosphorylation was upregulated by fibronectin-integrin 5α-JAK2 axis and maintained by the cytosolic LMO2/LBD1 complex. In addition, STAT3 signaling was critical in spheroid formation on polymer X. By allowing the generation of CSCs from cancer cells, the PTF platform will enable to overcome the previous limitation of patient-derived CSC. mRNA profiles of 8 day-SKOV3-ssiCSC spheroids and 2D-cultured SKOV3 control were generated by deep sequencing, in duplicate, using Novaseq-600