doi:10.1016/j.ejcb.2024.151396engGarcía-Gareta, ElenaCalderón Villalba, AlejandroAlamán-Díez, PilarGracia Costa, CarlosGuerrero, Pedro EnriqueMur, CarlotaRueda Flores, AnaOlivera Jurjo, NereaSancho, PatriciaPérez, María ÁngelesGarcía-Aznar, José ManuelPhysico-chemical characterization of the tumour microenvironment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomaART-2024-137830Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a highly aggressive lethal malignancy that accounts for more than 90% of pancreatic cancer diagnoses. Our research is focused on the physico-chemical properties of the tumour microenvironment (TME), including its tumoural extracellular matrix (tECM), as they may have an important impact on the success of cancer therapies. PDAC xenografts and their decellularized tECM offer a great material source for research in terms of biomimicry with the original human tumour. Our aim was to evaluate and quantify the physico-chemical properties of the PDAC TME. Both cellularized (native TME) and decellularized (tECM) patient-derived PDAC xenografts were analyzed. A factorial design of experiments identified an optimal combination of factors for effective xenograft decellularization. Our results provide a complete advance in our understanding of the PDAC TME and its corresponding stroma, showing that it presents an interconnected porous architecture with very low permeability and small pores due to the contractility of the cellular components. This fact provides a potential therapeutic strategy based on the therapeutic agent size.2024http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/13340610.1016/j.ejcb.2024.151396http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/133406oai:zaguan.unizar.es:133406info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/LMP29-21info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/101018587/EU/Individual and Collective Migration of the Immune Cellular System/ICoMICSThis project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No H2020 101018587-ICoMICSinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/ISCIII/FIS/PI17-00082info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/ISCIII/FIS/PI20-00921info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/PID2020-113819RB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN/RYC2021-033490-Iinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO-AEI-FEDER/PID2021-122409OB-C21info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MS-ISCIII-FSE/CP16-00121European Journal of Cell Biology 103, 2 (2024), 151396 [16 pp.]byhttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.esinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess