eprintid: 10065185 rev_number: 22 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/06/51/85 datestamp: 2019-01-08 09:26:09 lastmod: 2021-09-19 22:34:51 status_changed: 2019-01-08 09:26:09 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Cortes, E creators_name: Lachowski, D creators_name: Rice, A creators_name: Thorpe, SD creators_name: Robinson, B creators_name: Yeldag, G creators_name: Lee, DA creators_name: Ghemtio, L creators_name: Rombouts, K creators_name: Del Río Hernández, AE title: Tamoxifen mechanically deactivates hepatic stellate cells via the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor ispublished: inpress divisions: UCL divisions: B02 divisions: C10 divisions: D17 divisions: G91 note: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. abstract: Tamoxifen has been used for many years to target estrogen receptor signalling in breast cancer cells. Tamoxifen is also an agonist of the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor (GPER), a GPCR ubiquitously expressed in tissues that mediates the acute response to estrogens. Here we report that tamoxifen promotes mechanical quiescence in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), stromal fibroblast-like cells whose activation triggers and perpetuates liver fibrosis in hepatocellular carcinomas. This mechanical deactivation is mediated by the GPER/RhoA/myosin axis and induces YAP deactivation. We report that tamoxifen decreases the levels of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1α) and the synthesis of extracellular matrix proteins through a mechanical mechanism that involves actomyosin-dependent contractility and mechanosensing of tissue stiffness. Our results implicate GPER-mediated estrogen signalling in the mechanosensory-driven activation of HSCs and put forward estrogenic signalling as an option for mechanical reprogramming of myofibroblast-like cells in the tumour microenvironment. Tamoxifen, with half a century of safe clinical use, might lead this strategy of drug repositioning. date: 2019 date_type: published official_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-018-0631-3 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green article_type_text: Journal Article verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1616671 doi: 10.1038/s41388-018-0631-3 pii: 10.1038/s41388-018-0631-3 lyricists_name: Rombouts, Krista lyricists_id: KROMB89 actors_name: Bracey, Alan actors_id: ABBRA90 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Oncogene event_location: England issn: 1476-5594 citation: Cortes, E; Lachowski, D; Rice, A; Thorpe, SD; Robinson, B; Yeldag, G; Lee, DA; ... Del Río Hernández, AE; + view all <#> Cortes, E; Lachowski, D; Rice, A; Thorpe, SD; Robinson, B; Yeldag, G; Lee, DA; Ghemtio, L; Rombouts, K; Del Río Hernández, AE; - view fewer <#> (2019) Tamoxifen mechanically deactivates hepatic stellate cells via the G protein-coupled estrogen receptor. Oncogene 10.1038/s41388-018-0631-3 <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41388-018-0631-3>. (In press). Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10065185/1/s41388-018-0631-3.pdf