This aligns with the broader concept of crosstalk between cancer cells and the surrounding stroma, which is known to fuel tumour progression and orchestrate dynamic ECM remodelling (Poornima et al., 2022; Ridge et al., 2017), as well as the upregulated expression of genes associated with ECM and ECM-receptor interaction in co-culture conditions in this study. The gene discussed is MMRN1; the disease is cancer.