Mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling causes malignant melanoma cells to differentially alter extracellular matrix biosynthesis to promote cell survival

Background: Intrinsic and acquired resistance to drug therapies remains a challenge for malignant melanoma patients. Intratumoral heterogeneities within the tumor microenvironment contribute additional complexity to the determinants of drug efficacy and acquired resistance. Methods: We use 3D biomimetic platforms to understand dynamics in extracellular matrix (ECM) biogenesis following pharmaceutical intervention against mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) signaling. We further determined temporal evolution of secreted ECM components by isogenic melanoma cell clones. Results: We found that the cell clones differentially secrete and assemble a myriad of ECM molecules into dense fibrillar and globular networks. We show that cells can modulate their ECM biosynthesis in response to external insults. Fibronectin (FN) is one of the key architectural components, modulating the efficacy of a broad spectrum of drug therapies. Stable cell lines engineered to secrete minimal levels of FN showed a concomitant increase in secretion of Tenascin-C and became sensitive to BRAF(V600E) and ERK inhibition as clonally-derived 3D tumor aggregates. These cells failed to assemble exogenous FN despite maintaining the integrin machinery to facilitate cell-ECM cross-talk. We determined that only clones that increased FN production via p38 MAPK and beta 1 integrin survived drug treatment. Conclusions: These data suggest that tumor cells engineer drug resistance by altering their ECM biosynthesis. Therefore, drug treatment may induce ECM biosynthesis, contributing to de novo resistance.