Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40835606›Full record

ArticleNature communications2025

Tumor cell-adipocyte gap junctions activate lipolysis and contribute to breast tumorigenesis.

Jeremy Williams, Roman Camarda, Serghei Malkov, Lisa J Zimmerman, Suzanne Manning, Dvir Aran, Andrew Beardsley, Daniel Van de Mark, Rachel Nakagawa, Yong Chen and 23 more

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
10citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

10 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Targeting MYC-Driven Cancers: From Oncogenic Addiction to Therapeutic Vulnerability.BioDrugs : clinical immunotherapeutics, biopharmaceuticals and gene therapy · 2026
    Review
  3. Article
  4. Review
  5. Article
  6. Rethinking the microenvironment's role in chemical-induced malignancy.Toxicological sciences : an official journal of the Society of Toxicology · 2026
    Review
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

33 authors.

Jeremy Williams *Department of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2575-0188
Roman Camarda *Department of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Serghei MalkovDepartment of Radiology & Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Lisa J ZimmermanDepartment of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA.
Suzanne ManningDepartment of Pathology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA.
Dvir AranFaculty of Biology, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6334-5039
Andrew BeardsleyDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Daniel Van de MarkDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Rachel NakagawaDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Yong ChenDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3634-0328
Charles BerdanDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Sharon M LouieDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Celine MahieuDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Daphne SupervilleDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Juliane WinklerDepartment of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9762-1721
Elizabeth WilleyDepartment of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Erica J HutchinsDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4316-0333
John D GagnonBiomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Seda Kilinc AvsarogluDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Kosaku ShinodaDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1928-0749
Matthew GrunerDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Hiroshi NishidaDivision of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
K Mark AnselDepartment of Microbiology & Immunology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4840-9879
Zena WerbDepartment of Anatomy, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6525-3872
Daniel K NomuraDepartment of Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1614-8360
Shingo KajimuraDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0672-5910
Atul J ButteFaculty of Biology, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7433-2740
Melinda E SandersDepartment of Pathology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7227-1764
Daniel C LieblerDepartment of Biochemistry, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN, USA.
Hope S RugoDepartment of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6710-4814
Gregor KringsDepartment of Pathology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
John A ShepherdCancer Center, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2280-2541
Andrei GogaDepartment of Cell & Tissue Biology, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA. Andrei.Goga@ucsf.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9127-0986

Funding

MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR IMMUNOLOGYT32AI007334 · NIAID · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI CYSTER, JASON G · 1988 to 2023
$11.0M
Development of CapCell Scope for Metabolic Imaging of Tissue Heterogeneity and Therapy ResponseR01EB028148 · NIBIB · DUKE UNIVERSITY · PI ANDREI GOGA, Nirmala Ramanujam · 2019 to 2026
$4.0M
Lesion Composition and Quantitative Imaging Analysis on Breast Cancer DiagnosisR01CA166945 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA · PI GIGER, MARYELLEN L., SHEPHERD, JOHN ALAN · 2013 to 2017
$3.3M
Lesion Composition and Quantitative Imaging Analysis on Breast Cancer DiagnosisR01CA257652 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA · PI GIGER, MARYELLEN L., SHEPHERD, JOHN ALAN · 2021 to 2025
$3.2M
Mechanisms of RNA turnover during the epithelial-mesenchymal transitionR35GM150763 · NIGMS · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI Erica Hutchins · 2023 to 2026
$1.6M
Mapping the Developing Beige Fat by Massively Parallel Single Cell AnalysisR00DK110426 · NIDDK · ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, INC · PI SHINODA, KOSAKU · 2018 to 2020
$747k
Characterization of Altered Fatty Acid Trafficking in Triple-Negative Breast CancerF31CA243468 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI WILLIAMS, JEREMY · 2019 to 2023
$191k
Mapping the Developing Beige Fat by Massively Parallel Single Cell AnalysisK99DK110426 · NIDDK · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI SHINODA, KOSAKU · 2016 to 2017
$180k
Investigating Fatty Acid Oxidation in Primary and Metastatic MYC-Overexpressing Triple-Negative Breast CancerF99CA212488 · NCI · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO · PI CAMARDA, ROMAN · 2016 to 2017
$72k
NCI NIH HHS F31 CA243468NCI NIH HHS F99 CA212488NCI NIH HHS R01 CA166945NCI NIH HHS R01 CA257652NIAID NIH HHS T32 AI007334NIBIB NIH HHS R01 EB028148NIDDK NIH HHS K99 DK110426NIDDK NIH HHS R00 DK110426NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM150763United States Department of Defense | United States Army | Army Medical Command | Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) W81XWH-12-1-0272United States Department of Defense | United States Army | Army Medical Command | Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP) W81XWH-21-1-0774U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Cancer Institute (NCI) R01CA17447U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) 2R01EB028148
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A pro-tumorigenic role for adipocytes has been identified in breast cancer, and reliance on fatty acid catabolism found in aggressive tumors. The molecular mechanisms by which tumor cells coopt neighboring adipocytes, however, remain incompletely understood. Here, we describe a direct interaction linking tumorigenesis to adjacent adipocytes. We examine breast tumors and their normal adjacent tissue from several patient cohorts, patient-derived xenografts, and mouse models, and find that lipolysis and lipolytic signaling are activated in neighboring adipose tissue. We find that functional gap junctions form between breast cancer cells and adipocytes. As a result, cAMP is transferred from breast cancer cells to adipocytes and activates lipolysis in a gap junction-dependent manner. We find that connexin 31 (GJB3) promotes receptor triple negative breast cancer growth and activation of lipolysis in vivo. Thus, direct tumor cell-adipocyte interaction contributes to tumorigenesis and may serve as a new therapeutic target in breast cancer.

Indexed as

AdipocytesBreast NeoplasmsCarcinogenesisGap JunctionsLipolysisTriple Negative Breast NeoplasmsAdipose TissueAnimalsCell CommunicationCell Line, TumorConnexinsCyclic AMPFemaleHumansMiceSignal TransductionConnexinsCyclic AMP

Identifiers

PMID40835606
PMCPMC12368202

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.