To determine whether endothelial cells — the cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels — directly
influence breast cancer cell growth, they then created unique organotypic models of lung and bone marrow microvascular niches, in which endothelial cells formed blood vessel - like structures in culture as they would in the original organ.
They found that atypical protein kinase c lambda / iota, which is known to
influence cell growth, was highly expressed and phosphorylated in metastatic
breast cancers.