肿瘤自播是循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）重新定植原发肿瘤的过程，促进肿瘤生长、血管生成和侵袭。然而，由于追踪和分离 TSC 方面的挑战，肿瘤自种细胞 (TSC) 的详细性质和功能尚未得到很好的定义。在这里，我们报告了一个准确的动物模型，使用光转换标记来重现肿瘤自我播种的自发过程，并将 TSC 识别为原发性肿瘤细胞的亚群，具有增强的侵袭性和存活率。我们证明 transmembrane-4-L-six-family-1 (TM4SF1) 作为 TSC 的标志物，可促进癌细胞的迁移、侵袭和锚定独立存活。通过分析单细胞 RNA 测序数据集，我们确定了癌症患者中具有转移特征的潜在 TSC 群体，该群体在疾病早期即可检测到，并在癌症进展过程中扩展。总之，我们建立了一个框架来研究 TSC 并识别在癌症中具有诊断、预后或治疗潜力的新兴细胞靶点。版权所有 © 2024 作者。由爱思唯尔公司出版。保留所有权利。

Tumor self-seeding is a process whereby circulating tumor cells (CTCs) recolonize the primary tumor, which promotes tumor growth, angiogenesis, and invasion. However, the detailed nature and functions of tumor self-seeded cells (TSCs) have not been well defined due to challenges in tracking and isolating TSCs. Here, we report an accurate animal model using photoconvertible tagging to recapitulate the spontaneous process of tumor self-seeding and identify TSCs as a subpopulation of primary tumor cells with enhanced invasiveness and survival. We demonstrate transmembrane-4-L-six-family-1 (TM4SF1) as a marker of TSCs, which promotes migration, invasion, and anchorage-independent survival in cancer cells. By analyzing single-cell RNA sequencing datasets, we identify a potential TSC population with a metastatic profile in patients with cancer, which is detectable in early-stage disease and expands during cancer progression. In summary, we establish a framework to study TSCs and identify emerging cell targets with diagnostic, prognostic, or therapeutic potential in cancers.Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.