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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Gastroenterology
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1436866
This article is part of the Research Topic Tumor Microenvironment and Personalized Therapy of Gastrointestinal Cancer View all 4 articles

Metabolomics of 3D cell co-culture reveals alterations in energy metabolism at the cross-talk of colorectal cancer-adipocytes Abbreviated title. Colorectal cancer and lipids' profile

Provisionally accepted
Andrea C. Pelosi Andrea C. Pelosi 1Álex A. Silva Álex A. Silva 1Anna Maria A. Fernandes Anna Maria A. Fernandes 1Pedro Paulo M. Scariot Pedro Paulo M. Scariot 1Manoela S. Oliveira Manoela S. Oliveira 1Andréia d. Porcari Andréia d. Porcari 1Denise G. Priolli Denise G. Priolli 2Leonardo H. Messias Leonardo H. Messias 1*
  • 1 Sao Francisco University, Braganca Paulista, Sao Paulo, Brazil
  • 2 Federal University of São Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Colorectum cancer (CRC) is the third most incident and the second most lethal malignant tumor. Despite the recognized association between obesity and CRC, further clarifications are necessary regarding the lipids that are overexpressed when the CRC takes place. In this scenario, the association between metabolomics and a 3D co-culture model involving CRC tumor cells and lipids can enhance the knowledge of energy metabolism modifications at the cross-talk between colorectal cancer and adipocytes. This study aimed to screen potential hydrophilic molecules in the three-dimensional (3D) co-culture of CRC and adipocytes, investigating the metabolome composition of this co-culture released to the extracellular space, the secretome. Pre-adipocytes cells (3T3-L1), human colon carcinoma (HT-29), and the 3D co-culture (3T3-L1 + HT-29) were cultured for the secretome obtention. Then, ultra high-performance liquid-chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry were used for metabolomics analysis of each secretome. Overall, 3731 molecules were detected regardless of the cell culture. When comparing the three cultures, 105 molecules presented statistically different abundances between the groups. Among these, 16 were identified, with emphasis to six lipids (PG 20:0, Octadecenal, 9,10-Dihydroxy-octadecenoic acid, Palmitoleic acid, PA 18:4) and one amino acid derivate (Acetylglutamic acid) which presented significant score during Partial Least-Squares Discriminant Analysis. While it is early to attest the possible impact of such molecules in the CRC microenvironment, these results open new avenues for further studies focused in the energy metabolism at the cross-talk of colorectal canceradipocytes.

    Keywords: co-culture, Metabolomics, neoplasm, Rectum, Bioiformatics

    Received: 22 May 2024; Accepted: 28 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Pelosi, Silva, Fernandes, Scariot, Oliveira, Porcari, Priolli and Messias. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Leonardo H. Messias, Sao Francisco University, Braganca Paulista, 12916-900, Sao Paulo, Brazil

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