Patients with advanced cancer often show symptoms of "cachexia," in which body fat and muscle atrophy and extreme weight loss.On the other hand, pancreatic cancer shows weight loss while the lesion is still localized.Why does pancreatic cancer cause weight loss even in small, locally localized cancer lesions?The mechanism has not been fully elucidated.

　The research group hypothesized that extracellular vesicles released into the blood from localized cancer lesions act on adipocytes throughout the body, causing lipolysis and weight loss.

　In our research, we have established a new method for isolating and analyzing extracellular vesicles that are thought to be derived from pancreatic cancer from among the extracellular vesicles in the blood, which are a diverse and heterogeneous population of derived cells.The analysis revealed that extracellular vesicles derived from pancreatic cancer highly expressed adhesion factors (molecules involved in cell adhesion) that are important for adhesion to adipocytes, and extracellular vesicles that adhered to adipocytes It was found that lipolysis occurs as a result of being incorporated into adipocytes.

　By applying the research method of this time, in the field of extracellular vesicle research in blood, the conventional "collective analysis study of heterogeneous extracellular vesicle populations" will be changed to "specific subpopulations and individual extracellular It is expected that a paradigm shift to "research that analyzes cells" will occur.In addition, the clarified mechanism of cancer cachexia will lead to the development of supportive care for cancer patients.

Paper information:[Clinical and Translational Medicine] Lipolysis by pancreatic cancer-derived extracellular vesicles in cancer-associated cachexia via specific integrins