An international research team led by Professor Simon Haas announced on Mar. 26 that they have uncovered how inflammatory processes can cause the breakdown of lymph node structure in aggressive forms of lymphoma. The findings, published in "Nature Cancer," were achieved using advanced single-cell and spatial analysis technologies.
The study is significant because it clarifies why some aggressive lymphomas lead to a complete collapse of the organized architecture within lymph nodes, which are crucial for effective immune responses. Until now, it was unclear what caused these structural differences and how they affected disease progression.
According to Dr. Lea Jopp-Saile, a first author of the paper and scientist in Haas's lab, "These approaches allow us to trace molecular, cellular and spatial changes within the tissue with great precision." The researchers found that rare stromal cells are responsible for organizing immune cells inside healthy lymph nodes by acting as "conductors" through biochemical signals. In aggressive lymphoma cases, this function is disrupted due to an inflammatory cycle triggered by T cells attempting to fight the tumor.
Dr. Felix Czernilofsky, also a first author of the paper, said: "We believe that by actively dismantling the lymph node's structure, the tumor weakens the very local immune response that is meant to eliminate it, thereby promoting its own growth." Analyses showed that when stromal cells lose their structural role due to reprogramming from inflammatory signals, patients face significantly poorer outcomes.
Professor Sascha Dietrich stated: "Our results suggest that stabilizing stromal cells or selectively modulating inflammatory signals could represent promising new treatment approaches." He added that these mechanisms might help develop biomarkers for earlier detection of aggressive disease.
The research was made possible through collaboration among scientists from several institutions including Berlin Institute of Health at Charité; Max Delbrück Center; Queen Mary University of London; University Hospitals Düsseldorf and Heidelberg; European Molecular Biology Laboratory; German Cancer Research Center; Heidelberg Institute for Stem cell Technology and Experimental Medicine; and University of Basel.
