TY - JOUR AB - Adipocyte infiltration in pancreatic cancer (PC) has been demonstrated to be independently associated with PC risk and an active contributor to tumor progression. However, to date, little is known about these unique pancreatic tumor‑surrounding adipocytes, or their response to cancer cells. The present study utilized an in vitro indirect coculture model in which the phenotypic changes of adipocytes following exposure to PC cells were directly observed. RNA‑sequencing was performed on 3T3‑L1 adipocytes cultured with or without Panc‑1 cancer cells, and significant changes were identified at the transcriptional level. In terms of delipidation and the impaired function of glucose and lipid metabolism, coculture with tumor cells resulted in an altered metabolic phenotype in mature adipocytes. In co‑cultured adipocytes, the appearance of fibroblast‑like cells was observed, and the mesenchymal cell differentiation pathway was enriched following the integrated analysis into the transcriptome. In addition, reverse transcription‑quantitative PCR analyses of co‑cultured adipocytes revealed a loss in gene expression of mature adipocyte markers, and a gain in gene expression of fibroblast‑specific markers. It was also confirmed that newly generated cancer‑associated adipocytes could facilitate the invasive capacities of the tumor, and may contribute to PC stromal remodeling. The present study supports a novel concept that reprogramming of stromal adipocytes orchestrated by PC cells may generate cancer‑associated adipocytes with activated phenotypes, which may ultimately drive pancreatic tumor progression. AD - Department of General Surgery, Huadong Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, P.R. China Key Laboratory of Metabolism and Molecular Medicine of The Chinese Ministry of Education, Fudan University, Shanghai 200032, P.R. China AU - Cai,Zhiwei AU - Liang,Yun AU - Xing,Chun AU - Wang,Hongwei AU - Hu,Pengfei AU - Li,Jialin AU - Huang,Haiyan AU - Wang,Wei AU - Jiang,Chongyi DA - 2019/12/01 DO - 10.3892/or.2019.7365 EP - 2549 IS - 6 JO - Oncol Rep KW - pancreatic cancer adipocyte tumor microenvironment delipidation dedifferentiation transcriptome PY - 2019 SN - 1021-335X 1791-2431 SP - 2537 ST - Cancer‑associated adipocytes exhibit distinct phenotypes and facilitate tumor progression in pancreatic cancer T2 - Oncology Reports TI - Cancer‑associated adipocytes exhibit distinct phenotypes and facilitate tumor progression in pancreatic cancer UR - https://doi.org/10.3892/or.2019.7365 VL - 42 ER -