HOX D13 Expression Across 79 Tumor Tissue Types
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Int. J. Cancer: 125, 1532–1541 (2009) ' 2009 UICC HOX D13 expression across 79 tumor tissue types Monica Cantile1,3, Renato Franco3, Adrienne Tschan2, Daniel Baumhoer2, Inti Zlobec2, Giulia Schiavo2, Iris Forte3, Michel Bihl2, Giuseppina Liguori3, Gerardo Botti3, Luigi Tornillo2, Eva Karamitopoulou-Diamantis4, Luigi Terracciano2,5 and Clemente Cillo1,2* 1Department of Clinical & Experimental Medicine, Federico II University Medical School, Naples, Italy 2Molecular Pathology Department, Institute of Pathology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland 3Surgical Pathology Department, National Cancer Institute ‘‘G.Pascale,’’ Naples, Italy 4Second Department of Pathology, University of Athens, Athens, Greece 5Health Science Department, University of Molise, Italy HOX genes control normal development, primary cellular proc- (CREB1, CREB2, Neuro D1) lying several hundred kilobases from esses and are characterized by a unique genomic network organi- one another.18 zation. Locus D HOX genes play an important role in limb genera- The most posterior located HOXD gene, HOXD13, was the first tion and mesenchymal condensation. Dysregulated HOXD13 19 expression has been detected in breast cancer, melanoma, cervical HOX gene to be described as mutated in human synpolidactyly. During normal morphogenesis, HOXD13 is involved in the deter- cancer and astrocytomas. We have investigated the epidemiology 20–22 of HOXD13 expression in human tissues and its potential deregu- mination of the terminal digestive and urogenital tracts. lation in the carcinogenesis of specific tumors. HOXD13 homeo- HOXD13 deregulation has been further detected in different tumor protein expression has been detected using microarray technology types, such as breast cancer, melanoma, cervical cancer and atroc- comprising more than 4,000 normal and neoplastic tissue samples ytomas,23–26 and in the neuro-endocrine differentiation of human including 79 different tumor categories. Validation of HOXD13 advanced prostate cancers.27 expression has been performed, at mRNA level, for selected tumor types. Significant differences are detectable between specific nor- Here, to immunohistochemically detect the expression of mal tissues and corresponding tumor types with the majority of HOXD13 homeoprotein in normal tissues and its potential deregu- cancers showing an increase in HOXD13 expression (16.1% nor- lation along the evolution of specific tumor types, we utilized tis- mal vs. 57.7% cancers). In contrast, pancreas and stomach tumor sue microarrays (TMAs) including >4,000 different normal tissue subtypes display the opposite trend. Interestingly, detection of the and cancer sample types from 79 different tumor categories. HOXD13 homeoprotein in pancreas-tissue microarrays shows HOXD13 expression has been further validated, at mRNA level, that its negative expression has a significant and adverse effect on through real-time quantification, for selected tumor types. the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer independent of the T or N stage at the time of diagnosis. Our study provides, for We report, for the first time, that an overview of a HOX protein the first time, an overview of a HOX protein expression in a large expression in a large series of normal and neoplastic tissues types series of normal and neoplastic tissue types, identifies pancreatic allows the identification of the specific cancer phenotype related cancer as one of the most affected by the HOXD13 hoemoprotein to the HOX protein function. This may represent a general and underlines the way homeoproteins can be associated to human approach useful for the whole HOX network to underline the role cancerogenesis. of the homeoproteins in human cancerogenesis and to allow ' 2009 UICC potential future clinical applications. Key words: HOXD13; HOX and multitumor tissue microarray; HOXD13 and pancreas Material and methods Class I Homeobox genes (Hox, mice; HOX, human) are tran- Normal tissue array, multitumor tissue array and scription factors mostly involved in embryonic development.1 pancreas tissue array They display an unique genomic network organization: 4 compact Three different sets of TMA were utilized for our study: a nor- chromosomal loci (HOXA at 7p15.3, HOXB at 17q21.3, HOXC at mal tissue array (NTA) composed of 8 samples of each 76 differ- 12q13.3 and HOXD at 2q312) where 39 sequence corresponding ent normal tissue types (n 5 608), a multitumor tissue array (MT- genes can be aligned with each other into 13 antero-posterior TMA) composed of up to 50 samples from 79 different tumor paralogous groups. The HOX gene network, the most repeat-poor types (n 5 4,018) and a pancreas tissue array (PTA) including 227 regions in the human genome,3 is also expressed in normal adult ductal carcinomas, 40 samples of pancreatic intraepithelial neopla- human organs.4 HOX genes appear to regulate phenotype cell iden- sia (PanIN3) and 40 specimens of normal pancreatic parenchyma tity,5,6 cell differentiation7,8 and control primary cellular processes, (n 5 307). Distale bile duct carcinomas, ampullary carcinomas as proven by the description of congenital,9 somatic10 and meta- and IPMN-associated carcinomas were not included in the PTA. bolic11 diseases involving these genes. Furthermore, besides the al- All ductal carcinomas of the pancreas were classified according to ready established role of the HOX network in hematopoiesis and the 6th Edition of the TNM classification (UICC).28 Selection and leukemogenesis,12 HOX genes are implicated in the neoplastic alter- characteristics of NTA and TMA have been reported elsewhere.29 ations of human solid tissues and organs such as kidney, colon, lung, skin, bladder, liver, breast and prostate.13,14 New crucial func- tions have recently been ascribed to HOX genes and homeoproteins Grant sponsor: Oncosuisse (Krebsliga Schweiz); Grant number: KLS mostly related to their interaction with miRNAs and ncRNAs to 02005-02-2007. Grant sponsor: Krebsliga Beider Basel; Grant number: guarantee transcription and export of specific mRNAs.15,16 KLBB 06/2006. Grant sponsor: PRIN (Italy); Grant number: 2006069951_003. Locus D HOX genes are localized on chromosome 2q31-32 and Monica Cantile, Renato Franco and Adrienne Tschan contributed play a role, with its posterior paralogous genes, in limb and digit equally to this work. generation during embryonic development17 through regulation of *Correspondence to: Department of Clinical & Experimental Medi- mesenchymal condensation. In this genomic area, a global control cine, Federico II University Medical School, Via S. Pansini 5, 80131 Na- ples, Italy. Fax: 10039-081-5454790. E-mail: [email protected] region (GCR) has been identified upstream of the HoxD cluster, Received 9 January 2009; Accepted after revision 5 March 2009 harboring cis-regulatory DNA elements able to coordinate DOI 10.1002/ijc.24438 the expression not only of HoxD genes and their immediate Published online 19 March 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience. surroundings but also of phylogenetically unrelated genes wiley.com). Publication of the International Union Against Cancer HOXD13 HOMEOPROTEIN IN MT-TMA 1533 TABLE I – COMPARISON OF HOXD13 NUCLEAR HOMEOPROTEIN EXPRESSION IN NORMAL TISSUE AND TUMOR TYPES OF THE SAME ORGAN (MULTITUMOR ARRAY) HOXD13 expression Organ Tissue type Cases (n) p-value1 Negative Positive p-value2 Mean (%) Median (%) Adrenal Gland Normal 6 0 0 0.014 6 (100.0) 0 (0.0) 0.014 Cortical adenoma 14 14.3 10 6 (42.9) 8 (57.1) 0.593 Phaeochromocytoma 23 4.3 0 19 (82.6) 4 (17.4) 0.002 Brain Normal 12 1.7 0 <0.001 10 (83.3) 2 (16.7) 0.021 Meningioma 47 4.5 0 35 (74.5) 12 (25.5) <0.001 Astrocytoma 45 12.9 0 24 (53.3) 21 (46.7) 0.655 Glioblastoma multiforme 35 25.1 20 4 (11.4) 31 (88.6) <0.001 Oligodendroglioma 21 22.9 10 8 (38.1) 13 (61.9) 0.275 Endometrium Normal 21 6.5 0 <0.001 14 (66.7) 7 (33.3) 0.127 Endometrioid adenocarcinoma 46 1.3 10 14 (30.4) 32 (69.6) 0.008 Serous adenocarcinoma 32 26.3 30 7 (21.9) 25 (78.1) 0.002 Esophagus Normal 12 3.6 0 0.247 10 (83.3) 2 (16.7) 0.021 Adenocarcinoma 9 8.9 0 6 (66.7) 3 (33.3) 0.317 Squamous cell carcinoma 32 10 0 17 (53.1) 15 (46.9) 0.724 Small-cell carcinoma 1 0 0 1 (100.0) Gall bladder Normal 9 8.9 0 0.178 7 (77.8) 2 (22.2) 0.096 Adenocarcinoma 44 3.6 0 22 (50.0) 22 (50.0) 1.0 Kidney Normal 24 9.2 10 0.534 20 (83.3) 4 (16.7) 0.001 Clear cell renal cell carcinoma 54 4.6 0 37 (68.5) 17 (31.5) 0.007 Papillary renal cell carcinoma 36 3.3 0 28 (77.8) 8 (22.2) <0.001 Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma 10 2 0 9 (90.0) 1 (10.0) 0.011 Oncocytoma 21 5.2 0 15 (71.4) 6 (28.6) 0.049 Larynx Squamous cell carcinoma 46 19.3 5 23 (50.0) 23 (50.0) 1.0 Liver Normal 20 7.5 0 0.887 16 (80.0) 4 (20.0) 0.007 Hepatocellular carcinoma 85 3.1 0 64 (75.3) 21 (24.7) <0.001 Lung Normal 23 2.7 0 <0.001 18 (78.3) 5 (21.7) 0.007 Squamous cell carcinoma 36 14.4 10 15 (41.7) 21 (58.3) 0.317 Adenocarcinoma 76 11.8 10 33 (43.4) 43 (56.6) 0.251 Large cell carcinoma 18 7.2 5 9 (50.0) 5 (50.0) 1.0 Small cell carcinoma 45 1.1 0 40 (88.9) 5 (11.1) <0.001 Bronchioloalveolar adenocarcinoma 7 14.3 20 2 (28.6) 5 (71.4) 0.257 Lymphoid tissue Normal lymph node 13 1.3 0 0.005 12 (92.3) 1 (7.7) 0.002 Nodular sclerosis Hodgkin lymphoma 25 9.2 0 17 (68.0) 8 (32.0) 0.072 Mixed cellularity Hodgkin lymphoma 17 5.3 0 11 (64.7) 6 (35.3) 0.225 Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma 10 2 0 9 (90.0) 1 (10.0) 0.011 Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, others 55 1.1 0 52 (94.6) 3 (5.4) <0.001 Myometrium Normal 54 7.5 0 <0.001 46 (85.2) 8 (14.8) <0.001 Leiomyoma 55 35.5 30 3 (5.5) 52 (94.6) <0.001 Neuroendocrine Typical