The Crosstalk Analysis between mPSCs and Panc1 Cells Identifies CCN1 as a Positive Regulator of Gemcitabine Sensitivity in Pancreatic Cancer Cells

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a deadly disease that is almost entirely resistant to conventional chemotherapy and radiation therapy. A significant factor in this resistance appears to be the dense desmoplastic stroma, which contains various cancer-associated fibroblast (CAF) populations. However, our understanding of the communication between tumor cells and CAFs that contributes to this aggressive malignancy is still developing. Recently, we used an advanced three-dimensional heterospecies, heterospheroid co-culture model to investigate the signaling between human pancreatic tumor Panc1 cells and mouse pancreatic stellate cells (mPSCs) through global expression profiling. Upon discovering that CCN1 was significantly upregulated in Panc1 cells during co-culture, we decided to explore the role of CCN1 using CRISPR-Cas9 knockout technology. Panc1 cells lacking CCN1 showed reduced differentiation and decreased sensitivity to gemcitabine, primarily due to lower expression of genes involved in gemcitabine transport and metabolism. Additionally, we observed that stimulation with TGF-β1 and lysophosphatidic acid increased CCN1 expression in Panc1 cells and induced a shift in mPSCs towards a more myofibroblastic CAF-like phenotype.