Researchers have been able to coax human breast cancer cells to turn into fat cells in a new proof-of-concept study in mice.在对老鼠展开的概念论证研究中，研究员可以收买人类乳腺癌细胞改变为脂肪细胞。To achieve this feat, the team exploited a weird pathway that metastasising cancer cells have; their results are just a first step, but its a truly promising approach.为了获得这项功绩，团队利用转移性癌细胞的奇特通路。

他们的结果只是第一步，但是显然是个很有前途的方法。When you cut your finger, or when a foetus grows organs, the epithelium cells begin to look less like themselves, and more fluid – changing into a type of stem cell called a mesenchyme and then reforming into whatever cells the body needs.你切到手指的时候，胎儿宽器官的时候，上皮细胞开始看上去不那么像他们自己了，更为像“液体”，变为一种叫作间质的干细胞，然后变为身体必须的任何一种细胞。

This process is called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and its been known for a while that cancer can use both this one and the opposite pathway called MET (mesenchymal‐ o‐epithelial transition), to spread throughout the body and metastasise.这个过程叫作上皮细胞-间充质转化成（EMT）。大家早已告诉了一段时间，癌细胞既可以用这种方式也可以用忽略的叫作EMT（间充质-上皮细胞转化成）的方式在体内蔓延移往。

The researchers took mice implanted with an aggressive form of human breast cancer, and treated them with both a diabetic drug called rosiglitazone and a cancer treatment called trametinib.研究员在小鼠体内植入一种攻击性的人乳腺癌细胞，用化疗糖尿病的药物罗格列酮和化疗癌症的药物曲美替尼化疗小鼠。Thanks to these drugs, when cancer cells used one of the above-mentioned transition pathways, instead of spreading they changed from cancer into fat cells – a process called adipogenesis.好在了这些药物，当癌细胞用上述的其中一种改变方式，而不是蔓延时，它们从癌细胞改变为了脂肪细胞。这种过程叫作脂肪构成。

The models used in this study have allowed the evaluation of disseminating cancer cell adipogenesis in the immediate tumour surroundings, the team wrote in their paper, published in January 2019.团队在2019年1月公开发表的论文中写到， “这项研究中用于的模式容许对必要肿瘤环境中蔓延癌细胞的脂肪构成展开评估。”The results indicate that in a patient-relevant setting combined therapy with rosiglitazone and trametinib specifically targets cancer cells with increased plasticity and induces their adipogenesis.“结果显示，在与病人涉及的环境中，用于罗格列酮和曲美替尼的疗法尤其针对具备可塑性的癌细胞，引领它们展开脂肪构成。

”Although not every cancer cell changed into a fat cell, the ones that underwent adipogenesis didnt change back.虽然不是每个癌细胞都会改变为脂肪细胞，但早已再次发生了脂肪构成的细胞会变回来。

本文来源：开云app在线下载-www.uecoolf.com