image: A common innate immune cell signaling mechanism orchestrates the reorganization of the tumor microenvironment and the response to microbial infection. Tumor cells (top) or normal epithelial cells (bottom) respond to independent stimuli to produce the sphingolipid S1P, among other factors. S1P activates resident innate immunity myeloid cells, such as macrophages, leading to the transcriptional activation and secretion of LCN2, a siderophore-binding protein. Conserved innate immune mechanisms--and specifically macrophages--are important in promoting cancer metastasis and limiting bacterial infection, two seemingly unrelated events. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the June 29, 2016 issue of Science Translational Medicine, published by AAAS. The paper, by J.J. Rodvold at University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, Calif., and colleagues was titled, 'Tumor microenvironment on the move and the Aselli connection.' view more
Credit: Rodvold <i>et al., Science Signaling</i> (2016)