Aspects of Skin Aging Encourage Metastasis in Melanoma
There are many ways in which the aging of tissue makes cancer both more likely to occur and more aggressive once it does occur. Here researchers focus in on specific changes in aged skin tissue that make melanoma cancers more likely to become metastatic and spread to other organs. Interestingly, it is an indirect effect on cell signaling that is mediated by increased stiffness of the skin extracellular matrix, an issue in many aging tissues that has many root causes, not just the one noted here. Nonetheless, if metastasis could be shut down, then cancer would become a much more tractable problem, particularly if control of metastasis were to be combined with improved approaches to the early detection of cancer.
Previous research has shown that a protein called HAPLN1 helps maintain the structure of the extracellular matrix, a network of molecules and minerals that provide structural support, to keep the skin supple. As people age, they release less HAPLN1, which causes the skin to stiffen. A new study shows that reduced HAPLN1 indirectly increases ICAM1 levels by causing stiffening, which alters cellular signaling. The increase in ICAM1 contributes to angiogenesis, or the growth of new blood vessels that supply the tumors with nutrients and help them grow. The blood vessels are also leakier, making it easier for tumor cells to escape from the initial tumor site and spread to distant areas of the body.
Treating older mice with melanoma with drugs that block ICAM1, however, prevents these changes, shrinking their tumors and reducing metastasis, researchers demonstrated. The researchers are now studying ICAM1's activities to develop more precise ways of targeting it with drugs, which might lead to new approaches to treating older people with melanoma. The discoveries might also lead to new approaches to treating other age-related cancers. Previous therapies targeting growth factors that contribute to angiogenesis have failed in many tumor types, including melanoma. But ICAM1 provides a promising new target.
Off topic news again, improved hydrogels could lead to improved tissue regeneration:
https://www.psu.edu/news/materials-research-institute/story/combining-novel-biomaterial-and-microsurgery-might-enable-faster/
"Sheikhi and his lab previously engineered granular hydrogel scaffolds (GHS), which are unique biomaterials made from packed gel particles or microgels. As opposed to bulk hydrogels, which Ravnic noted are commonly used in surgery, GHS enables the blood vessels to regrow in a set pattern. This contrasts with bulk hydrogels, where the blood vessels take on a random appearance as they grow back in bulk hydrogels.
"Not only can we induce blood vessel growth, but then we can pattern it based on the function of the tissue," Ravnic said. "For example, the skin capillaries are markedly different than the eye capillaries, which are markedly different than the capillaries in the heart, which are different than the ones in the colon. If you want to create a regenerative platform for a particular tissue, you need the capillary bed that allows that to happen, similar to an architectural pattern."...
...Ravnic's surgery method uses a technique known as micropuncture. This technique involves perforating an existing blood vessel using a tiny needle to aid cells in quickly moving into surrounding tissue. This promotes angiogenic outgrowth, where new blood vessels grow and extend from existing ones. The micropuncture technique prevents the formation of blood clots and significant hemorrhage, common issues in conventional vascular surgery.
Following the micropuncture, the researchers can apply the GHS directly to the wound area where tissue formation is to occur, which serves as tiny building blocks to create a framework to promote blood vessel formation. The GHS features a well-defined void architecture, providing parameters to guide the blood vessels as they grow.
The researchers tested the platform by applying the GHS/microsurgery technique to the hind limbs of rats. They found that blood vessels established around the GHS within seven days, without any observed harmful effects. The researchers also found that using GHS of different microgel sizes, they could control the distances between capillaries in the resulting vessel pattern.
"We strongly believe that this novel platform of GHS and microsurgery for reconstructive surgery and regenerative medicine will help patients grow new blood vessels rapidly," Sheikhi said. "
A quick google shows that the above news isn't even that off topic:
The Effect of Aging on the Cutaneous Microvasculature (2015)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4461519/
"It has long been appreciated that blood flow to the skin, the largest organ in the body, is reduced by 40% between the ages of 20 to 70 years (Tsuchida, 1993). This likely reflects changes in the microcirculation."
So you could perhaps do the same thing to aging peoples skin as they did to those Rats to improve the blood flow to the aging skin,