Roles of adipose tissues in tumor development

　Mammary fat tissue is consdered to form the basis for the development of normal mammary tissues and the initiation and progression of breast cancers. We have isolated the beast cancer cells and fat (adipose tissue-derived stem cells) from the surgical specimens of breast cancer patients, and found that the sphere formation abilities of breast cancer stem cells are enhanced by the adipsin secreted from the adipose tissue-derived stem cells (Goto H et al. Oncogene, 2018). Our research focues on the roles of adipose tissues as tumor microenvironment and cancer stem cell niche. We hope to identify novel strategies to treat cancers by targeting the interaction between adipose tissue and cancer.