![]() ![]() We characterise sc polarity in tumour cell lines and human tumour specimens from biopsies collected in liquid phase and investigate the role of sc polarity in human tumour cells, mouse models of metastasis and ex vivo. Sc polarity is defined by the intrinsic presence of an ezrin- and actin-rich pole in absence of an extracellular stimulus in non-adhering, non-migrating cells. Here we identify a distinct type of polarity termed single-cell (sc) polarity that tumour cells maintain in liquid phase. However, the polarisation of cells during liquid or detached phases and the relevance of such polarisation for metastasis have remained unclear. The metastatic cascade thus involves dynamic depolarisation and repolarisation of metastasising cells, reflecting their high plasticity. Throughout the metastatic process, solid tumour cells establish distinct types of polarity, such as apical–basal polarity in the tissue context of established primary or metastatic tumours or front–back polarity during migratory phases 7, 8. Metastasis is a multistep process comprising dedifferentiation, dissociation and local invasion of primary tumour cells, intravasation into blood or lymph vessels, survival and transport in circulation, arrest in microvessels of distant organs and extravasation and metastatic outgrowth 6. Despite novel promising targeted cancer therapies, patients diagnosed with systemic metastatic disease are no longer eligible for curative treatment options in many cancer subtypes 3, 4, 5 necessitating research on additional, broadly applicable strategies for metastasis intervention. Metastases are the major cause of cancer-related deaths 1, 2. Nature Communications volume 9, Article number: 887 ( 2018) They act like animals, or they act like one water droplet in a bucket.Single cell polarity in liquid phase facilitates tumour metastasis Humans don't act like ideal, personality filled special snowflakes when the kitty litter hits the fan. Water can't be divided it's grammatically correct to say "Can I have water?" and grammatically incorrect to say "Can I have a water?" Compare that to something like cupcakes, which are individual entities-you say "Can I have a cupcake?" instead of "Can I have cupcake?")Ī humans, Wells is suggesting, are individually insignificant when faced with such a massive threat. (Quick grammar recap: a mass noun is one that doesn't take the singular form. ![]() (Which is what liquid does, right? You don't go to a glass of water and say, "take me to your leader," because water doesn't have a system of government.) Notice how the army isn't described as a stream-only the disorganized refugees are described that way.ĭescribing people in liquid-y terms also highlights our insignificance. One thing we noticed is that these large groups of people are only described in liquid terms because they have no order – people stream out because they have no organization or leader to tell them what to do. What's with all of the liquid words used in relation to large groups of people? What does it mean? There were so many people that "the hugest armies Asia has ever seen, would have been but a drop in that current" (1.17.1). For another example of liquid-related words being used to describe people, at the beginning of Chapter 17, the population of London "poured" out of the city. Look for the words "stream" and "torrent" in this chapter, such as the huge exodus of people is "a boiling stream of people, a torrent of human beings" (1.16.36). Maybe we first noticed this because we love the phrase "liquefaction of the social body" (1.16.1), but there are a lot of times in the book when water-related words get used to describe people.īook 1, Chapter 16 provides lots of great examples.
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