- Timaxian, Colin;
- Vogel, Christoph FA;
- Orcel, Charlotte;
- Vetter, Diana;
- Durochat, Camille;
- Chinal, Clarisse;
- NGuyen, Phuong;
- Aknin, Marie-Laure;
- Mercier-Nomé, Françoise;
- Davy, Martin;
- Raymond-Letron, Isabelle;
- Van, Thi-Nhu-Ngoc;
- Diermeier, Sarah D;
- Godefroy, Anastasia;
- Gary-Bobo, Magali;
- Molina, Franck;
- Balabanian, Karl;
- Lazennec, Gwendal
Chemokines present in the tumor microenvironment are essential for the control of tumor progression. We show here that several ligands of the chemokine receptor Cxcr2 were up-regulated in the PyMT (polyoma middle T oncogene) model of breast cancer. Interestingly, the knock-down of Cxcr2 in PyMT animals led to an increased growth of the primary tumor and lung metastasis. The analysis of tumor content of PyMT-Cxcr2-/- animals highlighted an increased infiltration of tumor associated neutrophils (TANs), mirrored by a decreased recruitment of tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) compared to PyMT animals. Analysis of PyMT-Cxcr2-/- TANs revealed that they lost their killing ability compared to PyMT-Cxcr2+/+ TANs. The transcriptomic analysis of PyMT-Cxcr2-/- TANs showed that they had a more pronounced pro-tumor TAN2 profile compared to PyMT TANs. In particular, PyMT-Cxcr2-/- TANs displayed an up-regulation of the pathways involved in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and angiogenesis and factors favoring metastasis, but reduced apoptosis. In summary, our data reveal that a lack of Cxcr2 provides TANs with pro-tumor effects.