Quantification of microenvironmental metabolites in murine cancers reveals determinants of tumor nutrient availability
Abstract
Cancer cell metabolism is heavily influenced by microenvironmental factors, including nutrient availability. Therefore, knowledge of microenvironmental nutrient levels is essential to understand tumor metabolism. To measure the extracellular nutrient levels available to tumors, we utilized quantitative metabolomics methods to measure the absolute concentrations of >118 metabolites in plasma and tumor interstitial fluid, the extracellular fluid that perfuses tumors. Comparison of nutrient levels in tumor interstitial fluid and plasma revealed that the nutrients available to tumors differ from those present in circulation. Further, by comparing interstitial fluid nutrient levels between autochthonous and transplant models of murine pancreatic and lung adenocarcinoma, we found that tumor type, anatomical location and animal diet affect local nutrient availability. These data provide a comprehensive characterization of the nutrients present in the tumor microenvironment of widely used models of lung and pancreatic cancer and identify factors that influence metabolite levels in tumors.
Data availability
Source data files detailing the concentrations of each metabolite in each sample are included for all figures. We have also deposited this information and the raw mass spectra in Metabolomics Workbench (http://www.metabolomicsworkbench.org/) as project ID: PR000750.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Cancer Institute (R01CA168653)
- Matthew G Vander Heiden
National Cancer Institute (F32CA210421)
- Laura V Danai
- Alexander Muir
Stand Up To Cancer
- Mark R Sullivan
- Laura V Danai
- Dan Y Gui
- Matthew G Vander Heiden
- Alexander Muir
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
- Mark R Sullivan
- Laura V Danai
- Dan Y Gui
- Matthew G Vander Heiden
- Alexander Muir
Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research
- Mark R Sullivan
- Laura V Danai
- Dan Y Gui
- Matthew G Vander Heiden
- Alexander Muir
Lustgarten Foundation
- Mark R Sullivan
- Laura V Danai
- Dan Y Gui
- Matthew G Vander Heiden
- Alexander Muir
Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research (Koch Institute Graduate Fellowship)
- Mark R Sullivan
National Cancer Institute (R01CA201276)
- Matthew G Vander Heiden
National Cancer Institute (P30CA1405141)
- Matthew G Vander Heiden
National Cancer Institute (F32CA213810)
- Laura V Danai
- Alexander Muir
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: This study was performed in accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. All animals experiments were performed using protocols (#1115-110-18) that were approved by the MIT Committee on Animal Care (IACUC). All surgeries were performed using isoflurane anesthesia administered by vaporizer and every effort was made to minimize suffering.
Copyright
© 2019, Sullivan et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Metrics
-
- 20,238
- views
-
- 3,264
- downloads
-
- 417
- citations
Views, downloads and citations are aggregated across all versions of this paper published by eLife.
Download links
Downloads (link to download the article as PDF)
Open citations (links to open the citations from this article in various online reference manager services)
Cite this article (links to download the citations from this article in formats compatible with various reference manager tools)
Further reading
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Cell Biology
Stem cell differentiation involves a global increase in protein synthesis to meet the demands of specialized cell types. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this translational burst and the involvement of initiation factors remains largely unknown. Here, we investigate the role of eukaryotic initiation factor 3 (eIF3) in early differentiation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived neural progenitor cells (NPCs). Using Quick-irCLIP and alternative polyadenylation (APA) Seq, we show eIF3 crosslinks predominantly with 3’ untranslated region (3’-UTR) termini of multiple mRNA isoforms, adjacent to the poly(A) tail. Furthermore, we find that eIF3 engagement at 3’-UTR ends is dependent on polyadenylation. High eIF3 crosslinking at 3’-UTR termini of mRNAs correlates with high translational activity, as determined by ribosome profiling, but not with translational efficiency. The results presented here show that eIF3 engages with 3’-UTR termini of highly translated mRNAs, likely reflecting a general rather than specific regulatory function of eIF3, and supporting a role of mRNA circularization in the mechanisms governing mRNA translation.
-
- Biochemistry and Chemical Biology
- Microbiology and Infectious Disease
Mycofactocin is a redox cofactor essential for the alcohol metabolism of mycobacteria. While the biosynthesis of mycofactocin is well established, the gene mftG, which encodes an oxidoreductase of the glucose-methanol-choline superfamily, remained functionally uncharacterized. Here, we show that MftG enzymes are almost exclusively found in genomes containing mycofactocin biosynthetic genes and are present in 75% of organisms harboring these genes. Gene deletion experiments in Mycolicibacterium smegmatis demonstrated a growth defect of the ∆mftG mutant on ethanol as a carbon source, accompanied by an arrest of cell division reminiscent of mild starvation. Investigation of carbon and cofactor metabolism implied a defect in mycofactocin reoxidation. Cell-free enzyme assays and respirometry using isolated cell membranes indicated that MftG acts as a mycofactocin dehydrogenase shuttling electrons toward the respiratory chain. Transcriptomics studies also indicated remodeling of redox metabolism to compensate for a shortage of redox equivalents. In conclusion, this work closes an important knowledge gap concerning the mycofactocin system and adds a new pathway to the intricate web of redox reactions governing the metabolism of mycobacteria.