It has been shown that fibroblasts within the stroma of malignant tumours can affect the tumour's biological character, influencing such properties as local aggressiveness and metastasis potential. This influence is asserted via paracrine secretion of multiple cell factors, including chemokines. This study demonstrates that both normal keratinocytes and cancer cells can stimulate the secretion of chemokines IL-8 and CXCL-1 from normal dermal fibroblasts and stromal fibroblasts from squamous cell carcinoma. The effect of epithelia on normal fibroblasts leads to a transient secretory change, in contrast to stromal fibroblasts which generate a more prolonged one. This observation demonstrates that stimulated expression of both IL-8 and CXCL-1 is not specific to cancer, supporting the hypothesis that similar mechanisms exist between wound healing and oncogenesis. It also shows that stromal fibroblasts isolated from a tumour have significantly different features from normal fibroblasts.

Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University Prague and General University Hospital Prague Czech Republic

Institute of Anatomy 1st Faculty of Medicine Charles University Prague Czech Republic