
Our lab focuses on the differential changes that occur during aging in primary microenvironments vs metastatic niches. We have published in melanoma that aged dermal fibroblasts promote a slower-growing melanoma primary tumor compared to a younger microenvironment via secretion of sFRP2, which promotes invasion and dissemination of melanoma cells into the lung. However, aged lung fibroblasts secrete the related family member sFRP1, which acts inversely to sFRP2 by down-regulating dormancy promoting signaling pathways such as Wnt5A and AXL in melanoma cells to promote proliferation and reactivation from dormancy via the MER tyrosine kinase signaling pathway.
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