Page 38 - Hormel Report 2023

Ningling Kang, PhD
“Liver metastasis refers to the process that cancer cells, originated from a different part of the human body, spread into the liver. Liver metastasis is a leading cause of cancer-related death of patients. My laboratory studies how liver resident cells interact with cancer cells during cancer cell implantation and growth in the liver aimed at identifying novel mechanisms and therapeutic targets for
liver metastasis.”
Ningling Kang
38 | THE HORMEL INSTITUTE // Tumor Microenvironment and
Metastasis
PROFESSOR
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
Hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) are liver resident perivascular cells. During cancer invasion of the liver, cancer cells are able to release
numerous factors including TGFβ to convert HSCs into cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs). CAFs in turn influence cancer implantation and growth in the liver. We are investigating how HSCs are con- verted into CAFs by TGFβ. Mechanisms identified will help develop novel strategies to suppress CAFs and liver metastasis.
Determine How Src Regulates Glycolysis to Provide Fuel for CAF Activation of HSCs.
Glucose transporter 1 (Glut1) –facilitated glucose transport into the cells is a rate-limiting step in glycolysis and CAF activation of HSCs. As Glut1 must be at the plasma membrane (PM) of HSCs for its transport function, we study mechanisms by which Glut1 is localized at the PM of HSCs in TGFβ1-stimulated HSCs.