
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Human Cancer Biology |
Authors' Affiliations: 1 Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology, Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu University, Beppu, Japan; 2 Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology, Japan Science and Technology Agency, Saitama, Japan; 3 Department of Surgery, Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan; and 4 Department of Biochemistry, Niigata University School of Medicine, Niigata, Japan
Requests for reprints: Masaki Mori, Department of Surgery and Molecular Oncology, Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu University, 4546 Tsurumihara, Beppu 874-0838, Japan. Phone: 81-977-1645; Fax: 81-977-1651; E-mail: mmori{at}beppu.kyushu-u.ac.jp.
| Abstract |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Experimental Design: The expression of FABP6 mRNA was evaluated in 78 paired samples of cancer/normal tissue representing colorectal cancer cases, plus 16 adenomas, and 16 metastatic lymph nodes. An immunohistochemical study was conducted with paraffin sections. In vitro transfection was done to determine FABP6's biological roles.
Results: The expression of FABP6 mRNA was significantly higher in cancer (75 of 78, 96.2%) than in normal tissue (P < 0.001). The expression of mRNA was increased in cancer compared with adenoma, but was dramatically decreased in node metastases. Tumors with high FABP6 expression were smaller in size (P < 0.01), more often in the left colon (P < 0.05), and had shallower invasion into the bowel wall (P < 0.05) compared with those with low expression. There was no significant difference between high- and low-expression tumors regarding clinicopathologic variables such as histologic type, lymph node, or liver metastasis, Dukes' classification, and prognosis. Immunohistochemical study revealed that FABP6 expression was primarily observed in cancer cells. In vitro transfection revealed that transfectants showed weaker invasiveness (P < 0.05), more dominant proliferation (P < 0.001), and less apoptosis than mock cells.
Conclusions: The expression of FABP6 was higher in primary colorectal cancers and adenomas than in normal epithelium, but was dramatically decreased in lymph node metastases, suggesting that FABP6 may play an important role in early carcinogenesis.
| Materials and Methods |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Written informed consent was obtained from all patients. The study design was approved by the Institutional Review Board in Kyushu University prior to implementation.
Reverse transcriptase-PCR and semiquantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR. Total RNA was extracted from each sample and cDNA was synthesized from 8.0 µg total RNA as described previously (6). The purity and concentration of total RNA were determined using an Agilent 2100 bioanalyzer (Agilent Technologies, Palo Alto, CA). The glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene served as an internal control. Semiquantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR assay was done using 78 surgically resected paired cancer and normal tissue samples, 16 adenomas, and 16 metastatic lymph nodes. The following primers were used to amplify genes: FABP6 (sense primer, 5'-ACTACTCCGGGGGCCACACCAT-3' and antisense primer, 5'-GTCTCTTGCTCACGCGCTCATAGG-3') and GAPDH (sense primer, 5'-TTGGTATCGTGGAAGGACTCA-3' and antisense primer, 5'-TGTCATCATATTTGGCAGGTTT-3'). The reaction was done in a LightCycler system (Roche Applied Science, Indianapolis, IN) using the LightCycler-FastStart DNA Master SYBR Green I kit (Roche Applied Science) as described previously (7). In brief, thermal cycling for all genes was initiated with a denaturation step of 95°C for 10 minutes, followed by 40 cycles at 95°C for 10 seconds, 64°C (60°C for GAPDH) for 10 seconds, and 72°C for each optimal length (s/25 bp). At the end of the PCR cycles, melting curve analysis was done to reconfirm the expected PCR product. We determined the levels of FABP6 and GAPDH mRNA expression by comparisons with cDNA obtained from Human Universal Reference RNA (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA). All calculated concentrations of target genes were divided by the amount of endogenous reference (GAPDH) to obtain normalized FABP6 expression values. Each assay was done in triplicate to verify the results.
Immunohistochemistry. Immunohistochemical studies for FABP6 were done on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded surgical sections obtained from patients with colorectal cancer. A total of 52 samples (38 colorectal cancer samples and 14 adenomas) were used for this study. After deparaffinization and blocking, the antigen-antibody reaction was incubated overnight at 4°C. LSAB + System-HRP (Dako, Kyoto, Japan) reagents were applied to detect the signal of the antigen-antibody reaction. All sections were counterstained with hematoxylin. Purified rabbit polyclonal antibody against the purified recombinant human FABP6 protein was used at a dilution of 1:200.
Protein extraction and Western blotting. For western blotting, protein extraction was done as follows: the transfectants and mock cells were absorbed in 50 mmol/L Tris (pH 7.5) containing 154 mmol/L KCl/10 mmol/L sodium acetate/1 mmol/L phenylmethansulfonylfluoride, homogenized by Bioruptor (Cosmo Bio Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan), and centrifuged at 20,000 x g for 60 minutes, then the supernatant was used. Protein samples of 50 µg were electrophoresed in 15% concentrated SDS polyacrylamide gel and electroblotted onto GeneScreen hybridization transfer membrane (Perkin-Elmer, Boston, MA) at 0.2 Å for 120 minutes at 4°C. The FABP6 protein was detected using FABP6 antibodies at a dilution of 1:1,000. Enhanced chemiluminescence detection reagents (Amersham Biosciences, Piscataway, NJ) were applied to detect the signal of the antigen-antibody reaction.
DNA transfection. The open reading frame of the FABP6 gene was cloned from the human FABP6 geneligated pUC18 vector (8). The primers for cloning the FABP6 gene are as follows: (sense primer, 5'-CACCATGGCTTTCACCGGCAAGTTCGA-3' and antisense primer, 5'-TTAGGCCACTCTCTTGCTCACGCGCTC-3'). The FABP6 gene was ligated to pcDNA 3.1 Directional TOPO expression vector (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) according to the manufacturer's protocol. To confirm accurate insertion into the frame of the expression vector, sequencing chemistry was done. DLD-1, the colon cancer cell line, was used for transfection assays. FUGENE6 (Roche Applied Science) transfection reagent was employed to establish permanent transfectant cells, which were then selected by neomycin treatment as described previously (9).
In vitro assays. Nine clones of transfectant cells were established by DNA transfection. Three clones which expressed a higher rank of FABP6 mRNA were used for examination to verify the results of in vitro assays. The clones from mock cells showing no difference from the parent cell line, DLD-1, were used for controls.
Invasion assays were done using the BD BioCoat Tumor Invasion System (BD Biosciences, Franklin Lakes, NJ) to evaluate invasive cells as described previously (10). Briefly, cells (5.0 x 104 cells/well) were placed in the upper chamber, and the lower chamber was filled with 750 µL of DMEM with 10% FCS as a chemoattractant. After 48 hours of incubation at 37°C, membranes were labeled with Calcein-AM solutions. Invasive cells that had migrated through the membrane to the lower surface were evaluated in a fluorescence plate reader at excitation/emission wavelengths of 485/530 nm. Invasiveness was evaluated as the percentage of fluorescence of invasive cells of HT-1080, the fibrosarcoma cell line that served as a control.
Proliferation assays were done by cell counting for three clones each of the transfectants and mock cells. Each clone was harvested in RPMI 1640 with 10% fetal bovine serum at 37°C in a 5% humidified CO2 atmosphere. They were plated at a density of 106 cells per well in three 10-cm plates and were harvested and counted on days 3, 5, and 7. The medium was changed every 72 hours. This experiment was done in triplicate.
Apoptosis assays were done using FITC-conjugated monoclonal rabbit anti-active caspase-3 antibody apoptosis kit 1 (BD Biosciences) and flow cytometer as described previously (11). Briefly, cells (2.0 x 106) were incubated for 72 hours in serum-free medium at 37°C and fixed in 70% ethanol at 20°C. Next, the cells were washed and resuspended in the buffer with FITC-conjugated monoclonal rabbit anti-active caspase-3 antibody. The FITC fluorescence was evaluated using an EPICS XL flow cytometer (Beckman Coulter Corp., Tokyo, Japan) until the total cell count reached 3 x 104. The experiment was done in triplicate to verify the results.
Statistical analysis. Quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR data and in vitro transfection assay data were calculated with JMP 5 for Windows software (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC). Differences between groups were estimated using Student's t test and
2 test. We applied Student's t test for data in normal distribution, the nonparametric Wilcoxon/Kruskal-Wallis tests for data without normal distribution, and the ANOVA test and Tukey-Kramer test for chronological data. P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
| Results |
|---|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
To evaluate the significance of the FABP6 gene, we investigated the proliferation assay and apoptosis assay; the results of which are shown in Fig. 3D and E, respectively. In Fig. 3D, the transfectant showed a more dominant proliferation (P < 0.001), and in Fig. 3E, the peak of FITC fluorescence of mock cells shifted to the right side as a result of more apoptosis compared with transfectants (
20-fold). These results suggest that the overexpression of FABP6 in cancer cells contributes to the protumorigenic events as dominant proliferation and antiapoptotic activity.
| Discussion |
|---|
|
|
|---|
Meanwhile, there have been few studies of FABP6 expression in cancers. We identified 84 genes that were overexpressed in colorectal cancer cells compared with the corresponding normal cells using a combined technique of laser microdissection and cDNA microarray analysis.5 Of these genes, we focused on FABP6 because it had one of the largest differences in expression between colon cancer and normal tissue. In the current study, quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase-PCR found that FABP6 mRNA expression was significantly higher (75 of 78, 96.2%) in cancerous tumors compared with corresponding normal tissue. Immunohistochemistry revealed that FABP6 protein expression was mainly in cancer cells themselves.
Why is FABP6 expression much higher in colorectal cancer than in normal colonic tissue? Previous studies of bile acids and carcinogenesis of colon cancer provide clues to understanding the underlying mechanism. The concentration of fecal bile acids, especially secondary bile acids, is higher in patients with colonic adenoma or frank colon cancer (2023). Furthermore, Fujii et al. discovered that bile acid exposure induced FABP6 expression in the Caco-2 colon cancer cell line (8). These studies suggested to us that high concentrations of bile acids cause increased FABP6 expression in colorectal cancer. Excess bile acids, especially secondary bile acids, which infiltrate epithelial cells depending on the concentration, induce apoptosis and indirectly cause DNA damage (5), which leads to genetic modulation in the colonic epithelium.
The present study showed that FABP6 expression status was associated with tumor location, tumor size, and depth of tumor invasion. Tumors with high FABP6 expression were more frequently located in the left colon than the right colon. This result might be explained by the relatively longer stasis of feces in the left colon, causing prolonged exposure of epithelial cells to bile acids, with the result that more cytotoxic secondary bile acids are produced by bacterial modulation compared with conditions in the right colon. Tumors with high FABP6 expression were smaller in size than those with low expression. The expression of FABP6 mRNA was markedly increased in the sequence of normal tissue to adenoma and colorectal cancer. We speculate that FABP6 overexpression relative to normal cells might be associated with early-phase carcinogenesis but that it might not be necessary for late-stage cancer progression. In fact, the transfectants contributed the more dominant proliferation (Fig. 3D) and antiapoptotic activity (Fig. 3E) as the protumorigenic events compared with mock cells. Furthermore, the expression of FABP6 mRNA was dramatically decreased in metastatic cells derived from lymph nodes, as shown in Fig. 1C. With regard to the depth of invasion, tumors with shallow invasion showed higher FABP6 expression than tumors with deep invasion. This result is consistent with in vitro invasion assays which found that FABP6 transfectants showed weaker invasiveness than mock cells (Fig. 3C). These results in assays of invasiveness, cell proliferation, and apoptosis as the protumorigenic events support the speculation that FABP6 overexpression might be associated with early-phase carcinogenesis.
We have hypothesized the possible clinical ramifications of the high expression of FABP6 found in primary colon cancer cells. Fatty acid binding proteins are a family of small proteins that bind long-chain fatty acids and show tissue specificity. There are nine known FABP's that exhibit tissue specificity, for example, FABP1 to liver, FABP2 to intestine, FABP3 to skeletal muscle and heart, FABP4 to adipocytes, FABP5 to epidermis, FABP6 to ileum, FABP7 to brain, FABP8 to peripheral myelin, and FABP9 to testis. Kleine et al. reported that H-FABP flowed into the blood after myocardial damage occurred, and thus, H-FABP was available for the detection and assessment of myocardial infarction (24). Rauch et al. found that E-FABP was overexpressed in head and neck cancer and was a candidate as a serum marker (25). FABP6 is one of the FABP gene families with a low molecular weight,
15 kDa. Thus, FABP6 might be released into the blood during the development of colorectal cancer tumors. In other words, FABP6 is a possible molecular marker for the diagnosis of relatively early-stage colorectal cancer and/or assessment of anticancer treatment. Further studies are required to clarify this hypothesis.
In conclusion, we identified overexpression of the FABP6 gene and evaluated its biological role in colorectal cancers. There is a pressing need to investigate related genes during the cancer progression process and assess whether FABP6 is a potential biomarker for colorectal cancer. In the near future, we anticipate that FABP6 may be useful clinically in cancer diagnosis and for the assessment of cancer therapy.
| Acknowledgments |
|---|
| Footnotes |
|---|
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
5 Ohmachi T, Tananka F, Mimori K, Inoue H, Yanaga K, Mori M. Clinical significance of TROP2 expression in colorectal cancer. Manuscript is accepted for publication to Clinical Cancer Research (MS# CCR-05-1961, version 3). ![]()
Received 9/17/05; revised 5/ 6/06; accepted 5/11/06.
| References |
|---|
|
|
|---|
This article has been cited by other articles:
![]() |
T. Yokoe, F. Tanaka, K. Mimori, H. Inoue, T. Ohmachi, M. Kusunoki, and M. Mori Efficient Identification of a Novel Cancer/Testis Antigen for Immunotherapy Using Three-Step Microarray Analysis Cancer Res., February 15, 2008; 68(4): 1074 - 1082. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
![]() |
C. Fang, J. Dean, and J. W. Smith A Novel Variant of Ileal Bile Acid Binding Protein Is Up-regulated through Nuclear Factor-{kappa}B Activation in Colorectal Adenocarcinoma Cancer Res., October 1, 2007; 67(19): 9039 - 9046. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF] |
||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
| Cancer Research | Clinical Cancer Research |
| Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention | Molecular Cancer Therapeutics |
| Molecular Cancer Research | Cancer Prevention Research |
| Cancer Prevention Journals Portal | Cancer Reviews Online |
| Annual Meeting Education Book | Cell Growth & Differentiation |