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Recently, NEJM Journal Watch reported that a particular mouse tumor releases exosomes (tiny membrane spheres that contain lipids, DNA, RNA, and proteins) that travel to and prepare “metastatic niches” in the liver for malignant cells from the tumor (NEJM JW Gen Med Jul 15 2015 and Nat Cell Biol 2015; 17:816).
An international team now reports that both mouse and human tumors that characteristically home to certain organs — lung, liver and brain — secrete exosomes that also home to those organs. Primary tumors destined to home to liver, for example, secrete exosomes with specific integrin molecules on their surface that bind ligands on various types of liver cells. Exosome contents were ingested by liver cells, triggering a cascade of molecul…