Circulating pancreatic stellate cells: a new window into pancreatic cancer metastasis

This study aims to identify and characterise circulating pancreatic stellate cells in an orthotopic mouse model of pancreatic cancer using single cell RNA sequencing. Two mice were orthotopically implanted with pancreatic cancer (10^6 AsPC-1 pancreatic cancer cell line cells + 10^6 human cancer-associated pancreatic stellate cells). The mice were allowed to progress for eight weeks. The mice were euthanased and samples from the primary tumour (MsPrim), metastasis (MsSec) and blood (MsBlood) were collected and pooled. Cultured cancer-associated human pancreatic stellate cells and AsPC-1 cells (Cult sample) - the source of implanted cells - were used for comparison. The paper is published in Cancers, 2021 (Pang et al, HGF/c-Met inhibition as adjuvant therapy improves outcomes in an orthotopic mouse model of pancreatic cancer, cancers, 2021).