Summary Tumors are characterized by extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling and stiffening. The importance of ECM remodeling to cancer is appreciated; the relevance of stiffening is less clear. We found that breast tumorigenesis is accompanied by collagen crosslinking, ECM stiffening and increased focal adhesions. Inducing collagen crosslinking stiffened the ECM, promoted focal adhesions, enhanced PI3 Kinase (PI3K) activity, and induced the invasion of an oncogene-initiated epithelium. Inhibiting integrin signaling repressed the invasion of a premalignant epithelium into a stiffened, crosslinked ECM, and forced integrin clustering promoted focal adhesions, enhanced PI3K signaling and induced the invasion of a premalignant epithelium. Consistently, reducing lysyl oxidase-mediated collagen crosslinking prevented MMTV-Neu-induced fibrosis, decreased focal adhesions and PI3K activity, impeded malignancy and lowered tumor incidence. These data show how collagen crosslinking can modulate tissue fibrosis and stiffness to force focal adhesions, growth factor signaling and breast malignancy.

A hallmark of mammalian immunity is the heterogeneity of cell fate that exists among pathogen-experienced lymphocytes. We show that a dividing T lymphocyte initially responding to a microbe exhibits unequal partitioning of proteins that mediate signaling, cell fate specification, and asymmetric cell division. Asymmetric segregation of determinants appears to be coordinated by prolonged interaction between the T cell and its antigen-presenting cell before division. Additionally, the first two daughter T cells displayed phenotypic and functional indicators of being differentially fated toward effector and memory lineages. These results suggest a mechanism by which a single lymphocyte can apportion diverse cell fates necessary for adaptive immunity.