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Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine [T. Y., T. H., R. Q-C., N. W., H. T., M. F.] and Department of Molecular Oncology and Virology, Cancer Research Institute [R. Q-C., H. S.], Kanazawa University, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan, and Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei 10016, Taiwan, Republic of China [T-S. S., S-Y. L.]
| ABSTRACT |
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Experimental Design: The association of LMP-1 to angiogenesis in 39 patients with NPC was evaluated by immunohistochemical study, and then induction of angiogenic factors by LMP-1 was examined by ELISA and luciferase reporter assay.
Results: In an immunohistochemical study, the expression of LMP-1 was significantly correlated to microvessel counts (P = 0.0003), suggesting that LMP-1 may induce some angiogenic factors. Therefore, we studied the relationship between LMP-1 expression and interleukin-8 (IL-8), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) expression by immunohistochemical analysis. IL-8, VEGF, and bFGF expression were correlated to microvessel counts, but only IL-8 expression was significantly correlated to LMP-1 expression (P < 0.0001). Transfection with LMP-1 expression plasmid induced IL-8 protein expression in C33A cells. The expression of LMP-1 transactivated IL-8 promoter, as demonstrated by IL-8 promoter luciferase reporter assay. Mutation of the nuclear factor
B responsive element in the IL-8 promoter region completely abolished transactivation by LMP-1, whereas mutation of the activator protein responsive element did not affect promoter activity.
Conclusion: These results suggested that LMP-1 induces expression of IL-8 through the nuclear factor
B binding site, which may contribute in part to angiogenesis in NPC.
| INTRODUCTION |
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EBV is a ubiquitous human
herpes virus and is associated to several human malignant neoplasms such as endemic Burkitt lymphoma and NPC (4
, 5)
. LMP-1 is the principal EBV oncoprotein. LMP-1 is essential for immortalization of B lymphocytes and transforms rodent fibroblasts and human keratinocytes (6
, 7)
. In addition to such transforming properties, LMP-1 is associated to down-regulation of E-cadherin, induction of MMP9, and up-regulation of cell motility (8, 9, 10)
. Thus, LMP-1 has been suggested to contribute to invasion and metastasis. As angiogenesis is associated to tissue remodeling, which resembles tumor invasion, it is of interest to determine whether multifunctional LMP-1 protein could contribute to microvessel synthesis (11)
.
In this study, we examined the role of LMP-1 in angiogenesis of NPC.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Immunohistochemical Analysis.
Immunohistochemical studies were performed using the avidin-biotin-complex method as described previously (12
, 13)
. Frozen sections 5 µm thick were fixed with 100% ethanol. Endogenous peroxidase was blocked with Endo-blocker (Biomeda, Foster City, CA) and nonspecific reaction was blocked with normal sheep serum (DAKO, Copenhagen, Denmark), then incubated with primary antibodies at 4°C overnight. Primary antibodies against LMP-1 (CS1-4; DAKO), IL-8 (RS000208; R&D Systems, Inc., Minneapolis, MN), VEGF (A-20; Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Santa Cruz, CA), bFGF (SC-79G; Santa Cruz Biotechnology), and vWF (A0082; DAKO JAPAN, Kyoto, Japan) were used. The samples were incubated with a universal secondary antibody (Research Genetics, Huntsville, AL) containing biotinylated goat antimouse immunoglobulin and horseradish peroxidase-conjugated streptoavidin and then 3, 3'-diaminobenzidine tetrahydrochloride as a chromogen and hematoxylin as a nuclear counterstain. NPC sections that had been used in previous studies were used as positive controls for LMP-1, VEGF, and vWF staining (12
, 14)
. Human placenta sections were used as positive controls for bFGF, and tonsil sections were used as positive controls for IL-8. The specificity of the staining was confirmed using nonimmune serum instead of the primary antibodies as a negative control.
Microvessel Counting.
Blood vessels were identified by anti-vWF antibody staining. The area of tumor that showed the most dense neovascularization was found by light microscopy at x10. Then, microvessels were counted at x400. These assessments were performed by two observers (T. Y. and T. H.). The highest number of microvessels identified within any single x400 field was defined as the microvessel index of the tumor.
Evaluation of Immunohistochemical Staining for LMP-1, VEGF, bFGF, and IL-8.
The stained specimens were examined independently by two of the authors (T. Y. and T. H.). In each case, two arbitrary separate microscopic fields (x200) containing >200 tumor cells were evaluated. These two arbitrary areas were selected from the area where microvessels were counted. After counting both immunoreactive cells and the total number of tumor cells, the average percentages of immunoreactive cells were calculated, without knowledge of the clinical data, and the results were reviewed by the other author. The average percentage of immunostained cells was defined as the expression score and was used for statistic analyses.
Statistical Analysis.
The data were analyzed with a Macintosh personal computer (Apple Computer, Cupertino, CA) with Stat View software (Abacus Concepts, Berkeley, CA). Statistical analysis was performed by Spearmans correlation coefficient by rank test and Pearsons correlation coefficient analysis, with Ps of <0.05 considered to indicate statistical significance.
Plasmid, Cell Line, and Transient Transfection.
The LMP-1 expression plasmid LMP1 was constructed as described previously (10)
. Using the primers 5'-TTAGATCTGTGATGACTCAGGTTTGCCCTG-3' and 5'-GTCCTAGAAGCTTGTGTGCTCTGCTG-3', the 169-bp IL-8 promoter fragment (-130 to +39 relative to the transcriptional initiation site) was amplified by PCR from human genomic DNA and inserted into the multiple cloning site of the pGL3-Basic Vector (Promega, Madison, WI) to generate a construct containing the firefly luciferase gene as a reporter (pIL-8-Luc; Ref. 15
). Mutations in NF
B- and AP-1-binding DNA sequences were generated by PCR using a site-directed mutagenesis kit (Takara, Otsu, Japan). The NF
B binding sequence in the IL-8 promoter TGGAATTTCC was mutated to TTAACTTTCC (
B-mut) and the AP-1 binding sequence TGAGTCA was mutated to TGATATC (AP-1-mut). The C33A cell line, derived from human cervical squamous cell carcinoma, was used according to our previous experiment. C33A cells (1 x 105) were cultured with DMEM supplemented with 5% fetal bovine serum for 24 h, and then transfected with 5 µg of the appropriate reporter and effector plasmids by the calcium phosphate method as described previously (9)
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ELISA.
LMP-1-transfected C33A cells were cultured with serum-free DMEM for 24 h. Then, the IL-8 content of the supernatants was measured using a specific ELISA assay kit (R&D Systems, Inc.) according to the manufacturers protocol.
Luciferase Reporter Assay.
Luciferase reporter assays were performed with extracts of C33A cells after transient transfection. Cells were incubated for 48 h after transfection, then harvested. Luciferase activity was quantified with a chemoluminometer (EG&G Berthold, Bad Wildbad, Germany).
| RESULTS |
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Relationship of Angiogenic Molecules to Microvessel Counts.
The relevance of angiogenic factors to the angiogenesis of NPC was evaluated by studying the relationships of IL-8, VEGF, and bFGF expression scores to microvessel counts. The expression score of IL-8 was significantly correlated to microvessel counts (P = 0.0428; Table 2
). Regression analysis also indicated a significant relationship between IL-8 and microvessel counts (Fig. 2c)
. Not only IL-8 but also the expression scores of both VEGF and bFGF showed significant correlation with microvessel counts (P = 0.0468 and P = 0.0309, respectively; Table 2
). These results suggest that IL-8, VEGF, and bFGF contribute to microvessel development in NPC.
Induction of IL-8 by LMP-1.
Immunohistochemical analysis suggested a close relationship between LMP-1 and IL-8 protein expression. Therefore, we examined whether LMP-1 protein expression could induce IL-8 production by ELISA. There was no difference in the growth between the pcDNA3-transfected C33A cells and the pcLMP1-transfected C33A cells at the time of supernatant collection. Concentration of IL-8 in the supernatant of pcDNA3-transfected C33A was 1.2 pg/ml and that of IL-8 in the supernatant of pcLMP1-transfected C33A was 50 pg/ml. Thus,
50-fold increase in IL-8 secretion was observed in the supernatant of LMP-1-transfected C33A cells (Fig. 3)
. This result indicated that LMP-1 induces IL-8 in C33A cells.
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B and c-jun kinase in C33A cells (10)
. Mutation of the AP-1 site in the IL-8 promoter significantly reduced its activity in response to LMP-1 expression by 70%. However, mutation of the NF
B site in the IL-8 promoter completely abolished its activity in response to LMP-1 expression (Fig. 4)
B in the IL-8 promoter is an essential element for the response to stimulation by LMP-1, and the binding site for AP-1 plays a partial role for the response to stimulation by LMP-1.
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| DISCUSSION |
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The present study suggested associations of VEGF, bFGF, and IL-8 to neovascularization in NPC. It is noteworthy that expression of LMP-1 was significantly correlated to both the expression of IL-8 and the microvessel count but not to the expression of VEGF nor bFGF. Although the number of NPC samples examined in this study was not sufficient to allow us to make definite conclusions, these results suggested that LMP-1 may contribute to angiogenesis in NPC through the induction of IL-8.
LMP-1 has an activated-tumor necrosis factor receptor-mimicking function, which induces activation of NF
B and AP-1 (16
, 17)
. Recently, we reported induction of MMP9 by LMP-1, which was mediated by both NF
B and AP-1 and blocked by aspirin or I-
B (10
, 18
, 19)
. Both binding sites for AP-1 and NF
B in the promoter of MMP-9 were indispensable for transactivation of the promoter by LMP-1. In contrast, the data presented here indicated that the NF
B binding site in the IL-8 promoter was essential for the response to LMP-1, and that the AP-1 binding site played only a partial role.
Many molecules, including cell-surface markers such as CD23, CD40, intercellular adhesion molecule-1, and the antiapoptotic protein bcl-2, are induced by LMP-1 in B lymphocytes (20, 21, 22)
. However, LMP-1 does not always have a similar effect on cellular signal transduction in epithelial cells. Functional NF
B complexes are combinations of the various NF
B family proteins, and different NF
B family proteins have varied affects on different NF
B-responsive promoters. In epithelial cells, LMP-1 activates a different subset of NF
B family proteins from that in lymphocytes (23)
. LMP-1 does not induce bcl-2 in epithelial cells but induces A-20 for preventing LMP-1-expressing cells from experiencing programmed cell death (24)
. Thus, we should be aware of the cell type-specific function of LMP-1.
Eliopoulos et al. (25)
reported that activation of p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase, as well as NF
B, by LMP-1, contributed to IL-8 production in epithelial cells. Recently, we also reported the up-regulation of cell motility by LMP-1 via ets-1 activation (9)
. The multiple functions of LMP-1 could be largely attributable to the activation of NF
B and AP-1. However, all molecules modulated by LMP-1 have not yet been elucidated, and additional studies of the molecular mechanism of LMP-1-mediated transformation and tumor progression are required.
Despite much evidence which suggests the relationship of LMP1 to tumor initiation and progression, the relationship of LMP-1 to the clinical features of EBV-associated tumors have been a matter of issue. In this study, there was no statistically significant correlation between LMP-1 expression score and cervical lymph-node status (P = 0.07; data not shown). Presumably, LMP-1 could play some role in both tumorigenesis and metastasis. However, so many factors, such as hypoxia and personal immune system, would also influence the behavior of the tumor.
The results reported here add weight to the growing body of evidence suggesting a positive role of LMP-1 in invasion and metastasis. Metastatic potential of NPC might be reduced by the inhibition of the LMP-1-mediated signaling pathways.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa 920-8641, Japan. Phone: 81-76-265-2413; Fax: 81-76-234-4265; E-mail: tomoy{at}med.kanazawa-u.ac.jp ![]()
2 The abbreviations used are: VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor; bFGF, basic fibroblast growth factor; IL-8, interleukin 8; NPC, nasopharyngeal carcinoma; LMP-1, latent membrane protein-1; vWF, von Willebrand factor; NF-
B, nuclear factor
B; AP-1, activator protein; MMP, matrix metalloproteinase. ![]()
Received 1/29/01; revised 4/30/01; accepted 5/ 2/01.
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