
A new stem cell that forms the spine was transplanted into a model organism and allowed to form a miniature vertebral bone (red). Breast cancer tumor cells (green) invaded the bone, demonstrating that this new spine stem cell is responsible for recruiting breast cancer cells.
In the study, published Sept. 13 in Nature, the researchers discovered that vertebral bone is derived from a stem cell that is different from other bone-making stem cells. Using bone-like "organoids" made from vertebral stem cells, they showed that the known tendency of tumors to spread to the spine — more than to long bones such as leg bones — is due largely to a protein called MFGE8, secreted by these stem cells.
"We suspect that many bone diseases preferentially involving the spine are attributable to the distinct properties of vertebral bone stem cells," said study senior author Dr. Matthew Greenblatt, an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and a member of the Sandra and Edward Meyer Cancer Center at Weill Cornell Medicine and a pathologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
In recent years, Dr. Greenblatt and other scientists have found that different types of bone are derived from different types of bone stem cells. Since vertebrae, in comparison with other bones such as arm and leg bones, develop along a different pathway early in life, and also appear to have had a distinct evolutionary trajectory, Dr. Greenblatt and his team hypothesized that a distinct vertebral stem cell probably exists.
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