Original Article PFTK1 Promotes the Progression of Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Through the Wnt/Β-Catenin Signaling Pathway
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Int J Clin Exp Pathol 2016;9(12):12228-12239 www.ijcep.com /ISSN:1936-2625/IJCEP0037998 Original Article PFTK1 promotes the progression of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) through the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway Liang-Liang Jia1,2*, Jie Chen3*, Ling Gai4, Yu-Peng Li5, Xiao-Ning Lu6, Xue-Fan Cui1, Li-Li Ji2,7 1Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China; 2Department of Pathology, Medical College, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, China; 3Department of Oncology, Jiangyin People’s Hospital, Jiangyin, Jiangsu, China; 4Department of Oncology, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, China; 5Department of Pediatrics, The People’s Hospital of Rizhao City, Rizhao, Shandong, China; 6Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, China; 7Department of Jiangsu Province Key Laboratory for Inflammation and Molecular Drug Target, Medical College, Nantong University, Nantong, Jiangsu, China. *Equal contributors. Received July 17, 2016; Accepted October 10, 2016; Epub December 1, 2016; Published December 15, 2016 Abstract: PFTK1, as a Cdc-related serine/threonine protein kinase, is a crucial regulator of cyclins and cell cycle. However, the role of PFTK1 in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains elusive. In the present study, Western blot and immunohistochemistry (IHC) assays demonstrated that PFTK1 was up-regulated in lung cancer tissues and cell lines. In addition, IHC analysis revealed that PFTK1 expression was associated with histological differentiation, lymph node status, TNM stage and predicted poor prognosis of NSCLC. In vitro studies using serum starvation- refeeding experiment and PFTK1 overexpression assay demonstrated that PFTK1 expression promoted prolifera- tion of NSCLC cells, while PFTK1 knockdown assay showed that PFTK1 knockdown led to decreased cell growth rate. Besides, the transcription activity of Wnt/β-catenin pathway was enhanced when PFTK1 was overexpressed. Our finding supported that up-regulated PFTK1 might promote the progression of NSCLC via activating the Wnt/β- catenin signaling pathway. Keywords: PFTK1, NSCLC, proliferation, Wnt Introduction PFTK1 is a member of Cdc2-related serine/ threonine protein kinases, also named as Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer- PFTAIRE1, which share a highly conserved motif related death in developed countries [7] and is PSTAIRE and are crucial regulators of cyclins becoming a common malignancy in developing and cell cycle [33]. The gene of PFTAIRE1 is countries because of air pollution and a high located at human chromosome 7q21.13, which cigarette smoking ratio, such as in China. Non- is highly expressed in the brain, pancreas, kid- small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most com- ney, heart, testis, and ovary and minimally mon type of lung cancer, accounting for approx- expressed in the spleen and thymus. The func- imately 80% of all lung cancer occurrences [2]. tion of PFTK1 was recently reported as a cyclin- Despite advances in early detection and stan- dependent kinase (CDK), regulating cell cycle dard treatment, the 5-year survival rate of progression and cell proliferation by specifically patients suffering from NSCLC is merely 15%, interacting with members of cyclin proteins which largely due to the fact that most of them such as cyclin D3 (CCND3) and cyclin Y (CCNY) are diagnosed at advanced stage [3]. Complete [14]. CCNY played an important role in Droso- understanding of the molecular mechanism of phila embryogenesis [15] and was associated NSCLC will contribute to the development of with human NSCLC proliferation and tumorigen- diagnostic technologies and new treatment esis [34]. The interaction between PFTK1 and methods. CCNY was reported to corporately mediate PFTK1 promotes progression of NSCLC through Wnt/β-catenin pathway Table 1. Relationship between PFTK1 expression The Wnt pathway functions in multiple cellular and clinicopathological factors in 140 lung adeno- biological processes and is involved in various carcinoma patients human diseases including cancer [4]. The Wnt PFTK1 signaling is divided into two branches: the Parameters Total expression P canonical β-catenin-dependent pathway and the non-canonical planar cell polarity (PCP) Low High and Wnt/Ca2+ pathway [16]. The Wnt/β-catenin Age (year) 0.197 pathway is activated when a Wnt ligand binds < 60 61 32 29 to Frizzled (Fz) receptor and its co-receptor ≥ 60 79 50 29 LRP6/5. The formation of Wnt-Fz-LRP6 com- Gender 0.13 plex, together with the recruitment of the scaf- Male 69 36 33 folding protein dishevelled (Dvl), results in LRP6 Female 71 46 25 phosphorylation and activation and the recruit- Tumor size (cm) 0.106 ment of the Axin complex to the receptors [18]. < 3 62 41 21 Accumulated β-catenin in the cytoplasm travels to the nucleus and forms complexes with T cell ≥ 3 78 41 37 factor/lymphoid enhancer factor (TCF/LEF), Smoking status 0.069 and activates the Wnt target genes including Yes 20 8 12 cyclin D1 and c-myc, which results in tumori- No 120 74 46 genesis [10, 28]. Histological differentiation 0.025* Poor 17 6 11 In this study, we found that the expression of Mod 94 54 40 PFTK1 was significantly increased in NSCLC cells and surgical tissues by assays of western Well 29 22 7 blotting. We also investigated the association Lymph node status 0.001* of PFTK1 with clinical and pathological par- 0 86 63 23 ameters. In addition, PFTK1 expression was > 0 54 19 35 changed by small interference RNA to explore TNM stage 0.004* its role in the progression of NSCLC cells. I 92 64 28 Meanwhile, we also detected the role of PFTK1 II 30 12 18 in the activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling III 15 5 10 pathway and its related protein expression, IV 3 1 2 such as β-catenin, c-myc and cyclin D1. There- fore, we hypothesized that PFTK1 could pro- Ki67 expression 0.001* mote the progression of NSCLC cell and would Low 81 65 16 be a potential treatment target of NSCLC. High 59 17 42 Note: Statistical analyses were performed by the Pearson χ2 Materials and methods test. *P < 0.05 was considered significant. Lung cancer tissue specimens and cell lines phosphorylation of low density lipoprotein Eight pairs of lung cancers and adjacent normal receptor-related protein 6 (LRP6) in Drosophila fresh tissues stored at -80°C until were ana- [6]. It was well known that phosphorylation of lyzed by Western blot. Then 140 lung adenocar- transmembrane receptor LRP6 represented an cinoma tissue specimens were obtained from initial step of the canonical Wnt signaling cas- the Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital cade [4, 31, 35]. It was reported that PFTK1- of Nantong University from 2003 to 2008, and CCNY complex activated non-canonical Wnt clinicopathologic data of these specimens was signaling in hepatocellular carcinoma [26] and shown in Table 1. Every patient was asked to PFTK1 played an oncogenic role in promoting participate in the study, and the removed tis- the cellular invasion and motility of HCC cells sues for research purposes were obtained from [20]. In addition, PFTK1 promoted tumor cell the Ethics Committee of Nantong University proliferation, migration and invasion in breast Cancer Hospital. No patient was treated with cancer [9]. However, whether PFTK1 affecting chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The lung cancer the progression of NSCLC remained unclear. cell lines A549, H1299 and SPCA1 were 12229 Int J Clin Exp Pathol 2016;9(12):12228-12239 PFTK1 promotes progression of NSCLC through Wnt/β-catenin pathway obtained from the Institute of Cell Biology, were as follows: anti-PFTK1 (1:100, Santa Cruz Academic of China (Shanghai, China). Biotechnology) and anti-Ki-67 (1:100, Santa Cruz Biotechnology). For assessment of PFTK1 Western blot analysis and antibodies and Ki-67, five high-power fields in each speci- men were selected randomly, and then cyto- Western blot assay was performed as previ- plasm and nuclear staining were examined. The ously described [17]. Tissue and cell protein degree of immunostaining was viewed and were homogenized in a homogenization buffer scored separately by 2 independent investiga- containing 50 mM Tris-HCL, pH 7.5, 150 mM tors without knowledge of clinicopathologic NaCl, 1% NP-40, 5 mM EDTA, 60 mM data in a blind manner. Tumor cell proportion β-glycerophosphate, 0.1 mM sodium orthovan- was scored as follows: 0 (no positive tumor adate, o.1 mM NaF, and complete protease cells); 1 (< 10% positive tumor cells); 2 (10-35% inhibitor cocktail (Roche Diagnostic), and then positive tumor cells); 3 (35-70% positive tu- placed on the ice for 0.5 h after being fully mor cells) and 4 (> 70% positive tumor cells). homogenized. Then the sample was centri- Staining intensity was graded according to the fuged at 13,000 r for 15 min to collect the following criteria: 0 (no staining); 1 (weak stain- supernatant. Protein concentrations were mea- ing = light yellow); 2 (moderate staining = yellow sured with a Bio-Rad protein assay (Bio-Rad, brown) and 3 (strong staining = brown). Staining Hercules, CA). The supernatant diluted in 2 × index (SI) was calculated as the product of SDS loading buffer and boiled for 15 min. staining intensity score and the proportion of Proteins were separated with SDS-PAGE (sodi- positive tumor cells.SI score ≥ 6 was used to um dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electro- define tumors with the high expression of phoresis) and then transferred to polyvinyli- PFTK1, and an SI score ≤ 4 was used to indi- denedifluoride filter (PVDF) membranes (Milli- cate the low expression of PFTK1. pore, Bedford, MA). The membranes were blocked with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) The SPSS18.0 statistical program was used for containing 0.1% Tween 20 and 5% non-fat milk statistical analysis. The Chi-square test was for 2 h and then were washed with phosphate- performed to evaluate the relationship bet- buffered saline (PBS) containing 0.1% Tween ween PFTK1 expression and clinicopathologi- 20 (PBST) for three times.