Tumors recruit mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) to facilitate healing, which induces their conversion into cancer-associated fibroblasts that facilitate metastasis. However, this process is poorly understood on the molecular level. Here we show that the CXCR6 ligand CXCL16 facilitates MSC or Very Small Embryonic-Like (VSEL) cells recruitment into prostate tumors. CXCR6 signaling stimulates the conversion of MSCs into cancer-associated fibroblasts, which secrete stromal-derived factor-1, also known as CXCL12. CXCL12 expressed by cancer-associated fibroblasts then binds to CXCR4 on tumor cells and induces an epithelial to mesenchymal transition, which ultimately promotes metastasis to secondary tumor sites. Our results provide the molecular basis for MSC recruitment into tumors and how this process leads to tumor metastasis.

The receptor tyrosine kinase Axl is over-expressed in a variety of cancers and is known to play a role in proliferation and invasion. Previous data from our lab indicates that Axl and its ligand GAS6 may play a role in establishing metastatic dormancy in the bone marrow microenvironment. In the current study, we found that Axl is highly expressed in metastatic prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines PC3 and DU145 and has negligible levels of expression in a non-metastatic cancer cell line LNCaP. Knockdown of Axl in PC3 and DU145 cells resulted in decreased expression of several mesenchymal markers including Snail, Slug, and N-cadherin, and enhanced expression of the epithelial marker E-cadherin, suggesting that Axl is involved in the epithelial to mesenchymal transition in PCa cells. The Axl-knockdown PC3 and DU145 cells also displayed decreased in vitro migration and invasion. Interestingly, when PC3 and DU145 cells were treated with GAS6, Axl protein levels were down-regulated. Moreover, CoCl2, a hypoxia mimicking agent, prevented GAS6 mediated down-regulation of Axl in these cell lines. Immunochemical staining of human PCa tissue microarrays demonstrated that Axl, GAS6 and Hif1-α (indicator of hypoxia) were all co-expressed in PCa and in bone metastases, compared to normal tissues. Together, our studies indicate that Axl plays a crucial role in PCa metastasis, and that GAS6 regulates the expression of Axl. Importantly, in a hypoxic tumor microenvironment Axl expression maintained leading to enhanced signaling.

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Dissemination of cancer stem cells (CSCs) serves as the basis of metastasis. Recently, we demonstrated that circulating prostate cancer targets the hematopoietic stem cell (HSCs) ‘niche’ in marrow during dissemination. Once in the niche, disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) may remain dormant for extended periods. As the major function of the HSC niche is to maintain stem cell functions, we hypothesized that the niche regulates CSC activities of DTCs. Here we show that DTCs recovered from marrow were significantly enriched for a CSC phenotype. Critically, the conversion of DTCs to CSCs is regulated by niche-derived GAS6 through the Mer/mTOR; molecules previously shown to regulate dormancy. The data demonstrate that the niche plays a significant role in maintaining tumor-initiating prostate cancer in marrow and suggests a functional relationship between CSCs and dormancy. Understanding how the marrow niche regulates the conversion of DTCs to CSCs is critical for the development of therapeutics specifically targeting skeletal bone metastasis and dormancy.