And one article that really stood out to me when I was just reading about this,
一篇文献引起了我的注意,我读这篇文献,
trying to figure out why cancer doesn't go to skeletal muscle, was that it had reported 16 percent of micro-metastases to skeletal muscle upon autopsy. 16 percent!
试图弄清楚为什么癌症不会发生在骨骼肌,这篇文献说,解剖时发现骨骼肌里有16%的微转移,16%!
Meaning that there were these pinpoint tumors in skeletal muscle, but only 0.16 percent of actual metastases --
这意味着骨骼肌肿瘤中有小范围的肿瘤,但只有0.16%的实际转移。
suggesting that maybe skeletal muscle is able to control the angiogenesis, is able to control the tumors recruiting these blood vessels.
这表明骨骼肌也许是能够控制血管生成过程,从而能够控制肿瘤对血管的利用。
We use skeletal muscles so much. It's the one portion of our body -- our heart's always beating. We're always moving our muscles.
我们这么频繁的使用骨骼肌。这是我们身体的一个部分,我们的心脏不停跳动。我们的肌肉一直处在活跃状态。
Is it possible that muscle somehow intuitively knows that it needs this blood supply?
难道肌肉隐隐约约的“感觉”到它需要血液供应?
It needs to be constantly contracting, so therefore it's almost selfish. It's grabbing its blood vessels for itself.
它需要不停地收缩,因此,它几乎是自私的,攫取血管为自己所用。
Therefore, when a tumor comes into skeletal muscle tissue, it can't get a blood supply, and can't grow.
因此,当肿瘤进入骨骼肌肉组织的时候,它不能获得血液供应,也就不能生长。
So this suggests that maybe if there is an anti-angiogenic factor in skeletal muscle -- or perhaps even more, an angiogenic routing factor,
这也许表明,如果在骨骼肌中,有抗血管生成因子——或者更进一步,存在控制血管生成的因子,
so it can actually direct where the blood vessels grow -- this could be a potential future therapy for cancer.
可以调控血管生长的位置,这可能会成为另一种治疗癌症的方法。
And another thing that's really interesting is that there's this whole -- the way tumors move throughout the body,
另一件很有趣的事情是,肿瘤在全身的移动。
it's a very complex system -- and there's something called the chemokine network. And chemokines are essentially chemical attractants,
是一个非常复杂的系统,包含所谓的“趋化因子网络”。趋化因子的本质是化学引诱物。
and they're the stop and go signals for cancer. So a tumor expresses chemokine receptors,
它们是癌症的红绿灯信号。因此,肿瘤表达为趋化因子受体。
and another organ -- a distant organ somewhere in the body -- will have the corresponding chemokines,
另一器官——一个离肿瘤一定距离的器官——将有相应的趋化因子。
and the tumor will see these chemokines and migrate towards it. Is it possible that skeletal muscle doesn't express this type of molecules?
肿瘤会看到这些趋化因子,并朝向它转移,有没有可能骨骼肌不表达这种类型的分子?
And the other really interesting thing is that when skeletal muscle -- there's been several reports that when skeletal muscle is injured, that's what correlates with metastases going to skeletal muscle.
还有一件事情很有趣,有几个报告都提到,当骨骼肌损伤和肿瘤向骨骼肌的转移密切相关。