Senescent stroma promotes prostate cancer progression: The role of miR-210

We focused our interest on senescent human-derived fibroblasts in the progression of prostate cancer. Hypoxic senescent fibroblasts promote prostate cancer aggressiveness by inducing epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) and by secreting energy-rich compounds to support cancer cell growth. Hypoxic senescent fibroblasts additionally increase: i) the recruitment of monocytes and their M2-macrophage polarization, ii) the recruitment of bone marrow-derived endothelial precursor cells, facilitating their vasculogenic ability and iii) capillary morphogenesis, proliferation and invasion of human mature endothelial cells. In addition, we highlight that overexpression of the hypoxia-induced miR-210 in young fibroblasts increases their senescence-associated features and converts them into cancer associated fibroblast (CAF)-like cells, able to promote cancer cells EMT, to support angiogenesis and to recruit endothelial precursor cells and monocytes/macrophages. © 2014 Federation of European Biochemical Societies.