ArticleNature metabolism2023
Adipocytes reprogram cancer cell metabolism by diverting glucose towards glycerol-3-phosphate thereby promoting metastasis.
Article in Nature metabolism, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cancer-associated adipocytes: metabolic reprogramming, crosstalk and therapeutic implications in tumor progression.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Tumor-derived PCSK9-enriched exosomes reprogram adipocytes to drive metabolic dysregulation and immune evasion in triple-negative breast cancer.Cell death & disease · 2026Article
- Rethinking ovarian cancer III: the past decade and future directions.Nature reviews. Cancer · 2026Review
- A pyroptosis-related molecular signature stratifies prognosis and highlights GSDMB-mediated malignancy in intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.Biology direct · 2026Article
- Peritumoural adipose tissue promotes ferroptosis resistance by 3-hydroxykynurenine-mediated suppression of ferritinophagy.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- The Multifunctional Roles of Aquaporins in Tumors: Focusing on Metabolism, Migration, and Regulation of the Tumor Microenvironment.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Metformin-A Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Drug-And Ovarian Cancer: Anticancer Mechanisms and Therapeutic Implications.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- Peritumoural adipose tissue drives immune evasion in colorectal cancer via adipose-mesenchymal transformation.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- Proteomic analysis across Healthy-NAT-Tumor tissues uncovers clinically relevant biological events in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2026Article
- Cell-intrinsic and tumor microenvironmental determinants of platinum resistance in epithelial ovarian cancer.Discover oncology · 2026Review
- TRMT6/TRMT61A-mediated tRNA mCellular & molecular biology letters · 2026Article
- Site-specific HPV18 integration facilitates cervical carcinogenesis through metabolic reprogramming-induced dysfunction of the SpHK1/S1P/S1PR1 pathway.Cell death & disease · 2026Article
- Cancer-Associated Adipocytes in Human Breast Cancer: An Observational Histopathological Study of Dedifferentiation and Stromal Transition.The breast journal · 2026Observational
- The Spatiotemporal Heterogeneity of Tumor-Associated Stromal Cells: Reprogramming Plasticity to Unlock Precision Cancer Immunotherapy.Cancer communications (London, England) · 2026Review
- A crosstalk between tumor cells and adipocytes facilitates tumor cell migration and invasion.International journal of biological sciences · 2026Article
- Metabolomics Plasma Biomarkers Associated with the HRD Phenotype in Ovarian Cancer.Metabolites · 2025Article
- Review
- Targeting Hyperglycemic Bone Pre-Metastatic Niche for Breast Cancer Bone Metastasis Therapy.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- CHP1 promotes lipid droplet growth and regulates the localization of key enzymes for triacylglycerol synthesis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Adipose tissue-secreted Spz5 promotes distal tumor progression via Toll-6-mediated Hh pathway activation in Drosophila.The EMBO journal · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In the tumor microenvironment, adipocytes function as an alternate fuel source for cancer cells. However, whether adipocytes influence macromolecular biosynthesis in cancer cells is unknown. Here we systematically characterized the bidirectional interaction between primary human adipocytes and ovarian cancer (OvCa) cells using multi-platform metabolomics, imaging mass spectrometry, isotope tracing and gene expression analysis. We report that, in OvCa cells co-cultured with adipocytes and in metastatic tumors, a part of the glucose from glycolysis is utilized for the biosynthesis of glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P). Normoxic HIF1α protein regulates the altered flow of glucose-derived carbons in cancer cells, resulting in increased glycerophospholipids and triacylglycerol synthesis. The knockdown of HIF1α or G3P acyltransferase 3 (a regulatory enzyme of glycerophospholipid synthesis) reduced metastasis in xenograft models of OvCa. In summary, we show that, in an adipose-rich tumor microenvironment, cancer cells generate G3P as a precursor for critical membrane and signaling components, thereby promoting metastasis. Targeting biosynthetic processes specific to adipose-rich tumor microenvironments might be an effective strategy against metastasis.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.