Karen E. Hunter

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that high levels of cathepsin protease activity are induced in the majority of macrophages in the microenvironment of pancreatic islet cancers, mammary tumors, and lung metastases during malignant progression and that interleukin-4 (IL-4) is responsible for inducing cat hepsin activity in macrophage in vitro and in vivo.

TL;DR: The results show that macrophages are important for promoting PNET development and suggest that additional factors contribute to the recruitment and survival of myeloid cells in RT2 tumors in the absence of CSF-1.

TL;DR: Examination of the roles of the cathepsin Z (CtsZ) protease in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in humans and mice found that tumor proliferation was exclusively regulated by cancer cell-intrinsic functions of CtsZ, whereas tumor invasion required contributions from both macrophages and cancer cells, indicating that cellular source can indeed impact molecular function.

TL;DR: Elevated heparanase levels significantly increased peritumoral lymphangiogenesis in vivo and promoted the trans-differentiation of macrophages into lymphatic endothelial cell-like structures in culture, and it was found that heparinase deletion led to increased angiogenesis and pericyte coverage.

TL;DR: This study identified and characterized a previously undescribed class of poorly differentiated PanNETs in the RIP1-Tag2 mouse model, and identified expression of Id1, an inhibitor of DNA binding gene, and a regulator of differentiation, specifically in PDIC tumor cells by histological analysis.