Will you be my Valentine ?

To invade other organs, tumour cells engage in a very sophisticated dialogue with the surrounding tissue and the extracellular matrix. In particular, they trigger the creation of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) to obtain food and proliferate. Here, it is precisely these reprogramming mechanisms that scientists are trying to identify using endothelial cells, which line the inside of vessels. In this complex microenvironment, their structure stands out, in grey, due to their actin cytoskeleton. An oncofoetal form of fibronectin, a protein that plays a key role in cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix, is shown in orange. Present in embryonic life, this form of fibronectin is expressed again during tumour progression, promoting cancer angiogenesis. And finally, in blue in the cell nucleus, protein SAM68 is suspected of being involved in the regulation of oncofoetal fibronectin. Excluded from certain regions of the nucleus, it sometimes produces smiley-like forms, such as the one featured here, with a heart-shaped mouth. This image is a winner of the 2021 La preuve par l'image (LPPI) competition.