Downregulation of glypican-4 facilitates breast cancer progression by inducing cell migration and proliferation (original) (raw)

Inhibition of Invasion and Metastasis by Glypican-3 in a Syngeneic Breast Cancer Model

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 2003

Glypican-3 (GPC3), a proteoglycan bound to the cell membrane through a GPI anchor, is widely expressed in the embryo but down regulated in most adult tissues, with some exceptions as mammary cells. GPC3 is involved in the regulation of cell proliferation and survival in specific cell types. LM3, a murine mammary tumor cell line unable to express GPC3, was stably transfected with the rat GPC3 gene to analyze its role in tumor progression. Upon injection into syngeneic BALB/c mice LM3-GPC3 clones showed less local invasiveness and developed fewer spontaneous and experimental lung metastasis than controls. GPC3-expressing cells were more sensitive to apoptosis induced by serum depletion, exhibited a delay in the first steps of spreading and were less motile than controls. On the other hand, LM3-GPC3 cells were significantly more adherent to FN than control ones. We observed that GPC3 transfectants presented a higher expression of E-cadherin and β-catenin, molecules whose down regulation has been associated with tumor progression. Exogenous TGF-β increased MMP-9 activity in both control and GPC3-expressing cells, but did not modulate MMP-2. Contrarily, GPC3 expression prevented the increase of MMP-2 activity induced by IGF-II. Our results suggest that GPC3 has a protective role against mammary cancer progression.

Glypican-3 induces a mesenchymal to epithelial transition in human breast cancer cells

Oncotarget, 2014

Breast cancer is the disease with the highest impact on global health, being metastasis the main cause of death. To metastasize, carcinoma cells must reactivate a latent program called epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), through which epithelial cancer cells acquire mesenchymal-like traits. Glypican-3 (GPC3), a proteoglycan involved in the regulation of proliferation and survival, has been associated with cancer. In this study we observed that the expression of GPC3 is opposite to the invasive/metastatic ability of Hs578T, MDA-MB231, ZR-75-1 and MCF-7 human breast cancer cell lines. GPC3 silencing activated growth, cell death resistance, migration, and invasive/metastatic capacity of MCF-7 cancer cells, while GPC3 overexpression inhibited these properties in MDA-MB231 tumor cell line. Moreover, silencing of GPC3 deepened the MCF-7 breast cancer cells mesenchymal characteristics, decreasing the expression of the epithelial marker E-Cadherin. On the other side, GPC3 overexpression induced the mesenchymal-epithelial transition (MET) of MDA-MB231 breast cancer cells, which re-expressed E-Cadherin and reduced the expression of vimentin and N-Cadherin. While GPC3 inhibited the canonical Wnt/β-Catenin pathway in the breast cancer cells, this inhibition did not have effect on E-Cadherin expression. We demonstrated that the transcriptional repressor of E-Cadherin-ZEB1-is upregulated in GPC3 silenced MCF-7 cells, while it is downregulated when GPC3 was overexpressed in MDA-MB231 cells. We presented experimental evidences showing that GPC3 induces the E-Cadherin re-expression in MDA-MB231 cells through the downregulation of ZEB1. Our data indicate that GPC3 is an important regulator of EMT in breast cancer, and a potential target for procedures against breast cancer metastasis.

Glypican-3 regulates migration, adhesion and actin cytoskeleton organization in mammary tumor cells through Wnt signaling modulation

Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 2009

Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a proteoglycan involved in migration, proliferation and cell survival modulation in several tissues. There are many reports demonstrating a downregulation of GPC3 expression in some human tumors, including mesothelioma, ovarian and breast cancer. Previously, we determined that GPC3 reexpression in the murine mammary adenocarcinoma LM3 cells induced an impairment of their in vivo invasive and metastatic capacities together with a higher susceptibility to in vitro apoptosis. Currently, the signaling mechanism of GPC3 is not clear. First, it was speculated that GPC3 regulates the insulin-like growth factor (IGF) signaling system. This hypothesis, however, has been strongly challenged. Recently, several reports indicated that at least in some cell types GPC3 serves as a selective regulator of Wnt signaling. Here we provide new data demonstrating that GPC3 regulates Wnt pathway in the metastatic adenocarcinoma mammary LM3 cell line. We found that GPC3 is able to inhibit canonical Wnt signals involved in cell proliferation and survival, as well as it is able to activate non canonical pathway, which directs cell morphology and migration. This is the first report indicating that breast tumor cell malignant properties can be reverted, at least in part, by GPC3 modulation of Wnt signaling. Our results are consistent with the potential role of GPC3 as a metastasis suppressor.

Glypican-1 Is Overexpressed in Human Breast Cancer and Modulates the Mitogenic Effects of Multiple Heparin-binding Growth Factors in Breast Cancer Cells1

Cancer Research, 2001

Glypicans are a family of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans implicated in the control of cellular growth and differentiation. Here we show that glypican-1 is strongly expressed in human breast cancers, whereas expression of glypican-1 is low in normal breast tissues. In contrast, the expression of glypican-3 and-4 is only slightly increased in breast cancers by comparison with normal breast tissues, and glypican-2 and-5 are below the level of detection by Northern blotting in both normal and cancer samples. Treatment of MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells with phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase-C abrogated the mitogenic response to two heparin-binding growth factors, heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor and fibroblast growth factor 2. Stable transfection of these cells with a glypican-1 antisense construct markedly decreased glypican-1 protein levels and the mitogenic response to the same heparin-binding growth factors, as well as that to heregulin ␣, heregulin ␤, and hepatocyte growth factor. Syndecan-1 was also expressed at high levels in both breast cancer tissues and breast cancer cells when compared with normal breast tissues. There was a good correlation between glypican-1 and syndecan-1 expression in the tumors. However, clones expressing the glypican-1 antisense construct did not exhibit decreased syndecan-1 levels, indicating that loss of responsiveness to heparin-binding growth factors in these clones was not due to altered syndecan-1 expression. Furthermore, 8 of 10 tumors with stage 2 or 3 disease exhibited high levels of glypican-1 by Northern blot analysis. In contrast, low levels of glypican-1 mRNA were evident in 1 of 10 tumors with stage 2 or 3 disease and in 9 of 10 tumors with stage 1 disease. Taken together, these data suggest that glypican-1 may play a pivotal role in the ability of breast cancer cells to exhibit a mitogenic response to multiple heparin-binding growth factors and may contribute to disease progression in this malignancy.

Glypican-1 is overexpressed in human breast cancer and modulates the mitogenic effects of multiple heparin-binding growth factors in breast cancer cells

Cancer research, 2001

Glypicans are a family of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored cell surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans implicated in the control of cellular growth and differentiation. Here we show that glypican-1 is strongly expressed in human breast cancers, whereas expression of glypican-1 is low in normal breast tissues. In contrast, the expression of glypican-3 and -4 is only slightly increased in breast cancers by comparison with normal breast tissues, and glypican-2 and -5 are below the level of detection by Northern blotting in both normal and cancer samples. Treatment of MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468 breast cancer cells with phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase-C abrogated the mitogenic response to two heparin-binding growth factors, heparin-binding epidermal growth factor-like growth factor and fibroblast growth factor 2. Stable transfection of these cells with a glypican-1 antisense construct markedly decreased glypican-1 protein levels and the mitogenic response to the same heparin-binding growth factors, as well as that to heregulin ␣, heregulin ␤, and hepatocyte growth factor. Syndecan-1 was also expressed at high levels in both breast cancer tissues and breast cancer cells when compared with normal breast tissues. There was a good correlation between glypican-1 and syndecan-1 expression in the tumors. However, clones expressing the glypican-1 antisense construct did not exhibit decreased syndecan-1 levels, indicating that loss of responsiveness to heparin-binding growth factors in these clones was not due to altered syndecan-1 expression. Furthermore, 8 of 10 tumors with stage 2 or 3 disease exhibited high levels of glypican-1 by Northern blot analysis. In contrast, low levels of glypican-1 mRNA were evident in 1 of 10 tumors with stage 2 or 3 disease and in 9 of 10 tumors with stage 1 disease. Taken together, these data suggest that glypican-1 may play a pivotal role in the ability of breast cancer cells to exhibit a mitogenic response to multiple heparin-binding growth factors and may contribute to disease progression in this malignancy.

Expression of Glypican-3 (GPC3) in Malignant and Non-malignant Human Breast Tissues

The Open Cancer Journal, 2015

Specific reports have linked GPC3 with cancer. Its usefulness as a marker has been proved for hepatocarcinoma, melanoma and ovary carcinoma. However, there are no studies analyzing GPC3 usefulness as a biomarker in mammary tumors. The aim of this work was to analyze GPC3 expression in breast tissues and to determine whether it might be useful as a biomarker in breast cancer patients. Expression level of GPC3 mRNA in Brazilian and Argentine human breast tumor (n=121) and peritumoral "normal" tissue (n=77) samples was analyzed using qRT-PCR. GPC3 protein expression was analyzed from 69 breast cancer and 10 peritumoral samples using IHC. Statistical analyses were done to evaluate the clinical-pathological significance of GPC3 expression. We found that Brazilian and Argentine populations are statistically different regarding GPC3 mRNA expression. In Argentine patients a lower GPC3 mRNA expression was found in tumors as compared to peritumoral tissues. No association was found between GPC3 mRNA and protein expression and the clinical-pathological parameters. The Kaplan-Meier curves suggested that elevated levels of GPC3 mRNA are associated with relapse. Our results indicate differential expression of GPC3 in mammary tumors in comparasion to normal breast tissues. They also suggest the potential role of GPC3 as a biomarker and the importance of deepening the study.

Glypican-1 modulates the angiogenic and metastatic potential of human and mouse cancer cells

Journal of Clinical Investigation, 2008

Cells isolated from many types of human cancers express heparin-binding growth factors (HBGFs) that drive tumor growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis. The heparan sulfate proteoglycan glypican-1 (GPC1) is a coreceptor for HBGFs. Here we show that both cancer cell-derived and host-derived GPC1 are crucial for efficient growth, metastasis, and angiogenesis of human and mouse cancer cells. Thus downregulation of GPC1 in the human pancreatic cancer cell line PANC-1, using antisense approaches, resulted in prolonged doubling times and decreased anchorage-independent growth in vitro as well as attenuated tumor growth, angiogenesis, and metastasis when these cells were transplanted into athymic mice. Moreover, athymic mice that lacked GPC1 exhibited decreased tumor angiogenesis and metastasis following intrapancreatic implantation with either PANC-1 or T3M4 human pancreatic cancer cells and fewer pulmonary metastases following intravenous injection of murine B16-F10 melanoma cells. In addition, hepatic endothelial cells isolated from these mice exhibited an attenuated mitogenic response to VEGF-A. These data indicate that cancer cell-and host-derived GPC1 are crucial for full mitogenic, angiogenic, and metastatic potential of cancer cells. Thus targeting GPC1 might provide new avenues for cancer therapy and for the prevention of cancer metastasis.

The cancer cell glycocalyx proteoglycan Glypican-1 mediates interstitial flow mechanotransduction to enhance cell migration and metastasis

Biorheology, 2019

BACKGROUND: Previous studies have demonstrated that the glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) heparan sulfate (HS) and hyaluronic acid (HA) are mechanosensors for interstitial flow on cancer cells. The proteins that link the GAGs to the cancer cell for mechanotransduction, however, are not known. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether the HS proteoglycan core proteins, glypican-1 and syndecan-1, or the HA receptor, CD44, provides the mechanical linkage to the cell. METHODS: The highly metastatic renal carcinoma cell line (SN12L1) and its companion low metastatic cell line (SN12C) were analyzed by Western blot, siRNA, and a 3-dimensional interstitial flow migration assay. RESULTS: There was significant elevation of glypican-1 protein expression in the SN12L1 cells relative to the SN12C cells while there were no significant differences in syndecan-1 or CD44. Knock down of glypican-1 by siRNA completely blocked flow induced migration in SN12L1 cells. MAPK inhibitors also blocked flow induced migration in SN12L1 cells. CONCLUSIONS: Glypican-1 provides the mechanical linkage from HS (the flow sensor) to the SN12L1 cell where mechanotransduction leading to the enhancement of migration (metastasis) occurs. MAPKs downstream of Glypican-1 propagate the signal. The HS, Glypican-1, MAPK signaling axis suggests opportunities for pharmaceutical intervention.

Biology and function of glypican-3 as a candidate for early cancerous transformation of hepatocytes in hepatocellular carcinoma

Oncology Reports, 2017

Glypican-3 (GPC-3), a transmembrane heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG), has recently been investigated as a player in tissue-dependent cellular signaling, specifically as a regulator of growth. Noteworthy, the regulatory protein has been implicated in both stimulatory and inhibitory pathways involving cell growth. Initially, GPC-3 was thought to act as a cell cycle regulator, as a loss-of-function mutation in the gene caused a hyper-proliferative state known as Simpson-Golabi-Behmel (SGB) overgrowth syndrome. Additionally, certain cancer types have displayed a downregulation of GPC-3 expression. More recently, the protein has been evaluated as a useful marker for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) due to its increased expression in the liver during times of growth. In contrast, the GPC-3 marker is not detectable in normal adult liver. Immunotherapy that targets GPC-3 and its affiliated proteins is under investigation as these new biomarkers may hold potential for the detection and treatment of HCC and other diseases in which GPC-3 may be overexpressed. Studies have reported that an overexpression of GPC-3 in HCC predicts a poorer prognosis. This prognostic value further pushes the question regarding GPC-3's role in the regulation and progression of HCC. This review will summarize the current knowledge regarding the clinical aspects of GPC-3, while also synthesizing the current literature with the aim to better understand this molecule's biological interactions at a molecular level, not only in the liver, but in the rest of the body as well. Due to the existing gap in the literature surrounding GPC-3, we believe further investigation of function, structure and domains, cellular localization, and other subfields is warranted to evaluate the protein as a whole, as well as its part in the study of HCC. Contents 1. Introduction and structure of GPC-3 2. Expression pattern of GPC-3 in human and mouse 3. GPC-3 as a serum marker for early detection of HCC 4. GPC-3 in resection, regeneration and liver diseases 5. GPC-3 as a therapeutic target for HCC 6. GPC-3 and co-receptors 7. Conclusion

Screening of Glypican- 3 Expression in Human Normal versus Benign and Malignant Tissues: A Comparative Study Glypican- 3 expression in cancers

Biosciences, Biotechnology Research Asia, 2016

Glypican-3 is a heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) expressed at plasma membrane surface. Several studies demonstrated the re-expression of glypican-3 during the malignant transformation. Glypican-3 expression in hepatocellular carcinoma was suggested to be a diagnostic marker for differential diagnosis of hepatic nodules. The aim of the study is to evaluate the diagnostic value of glypican-3 as tumor marker not only in liver tumors but also in tumors of the other organs. A total of 95 surgically excised human tissues were subjected to immunohistochemical staining using a monoclonal antibody specific for glypican-3. These human tissues cover most of the common normal, benign, malignant and metastatic tumors originated from 27 anatomic sites. The immunohistochemical results revealed that glypican-3 was expressed in 17.4% of the normal tissues studied including stomach, small intestine, kidney (Normal cortex), and pancreas, while, the expression for glypican-3 was positive in 41.8 % of the benign and malignant tumors. The most frequent expressing tumor was hepatocellular carcinoma. Moreover, for the first time, several tumor entities showed glypican-3 expression including malignant meningioma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, B-non Hodgkin's lymphoma,T-non Hodgkin's lymphoma.