Affiliations of authors: J.-Y. Shih, C.-J. Yu (Department of Internal Medicine), A. Yuan (Department of Emergency Medicine), J. J. W. Chen (Department of Clinical Research), Y.-L. Chang (Department of Pathology), Y.-C. Lee (Department of Surgery), National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei; S.-C. Yang, T.-M. Hong, K. Peck, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taipei; C.-W. Wu, National Health Research Institutes, Taipei; P.-C. Yang, Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, National Health Research Institutes, and Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Taipei.
Correspondence to: Pan-Chyr Yang, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, No. 7, Chung-Shan South Rd., Taipei 100, Taiwan (e-mail: pcyang{at}ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw).
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ABSTRACT |
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INTRODUCTION |
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Cancers are a heterogeneous mass of neoplastic cells with various properties, including different metastatic activity (4). During carcinogenesis, some tumor cells probably acquire new phenotypes by the increased expression of metastasis-promoting genes or the decreased expression of metastasis-suppressor genes. Studies of differential gene expression in poorly metastatic cancer cells and highly metastatic cancer cells should identify genes associated with metastasis and, in fact, several metastasis-suppressor genes, such as NM23, KAI1, and KiSS-1, have been so identified (57). New high-throughput genomic technologies, such as DNA microarray technology, may facilitate gene-expression profiling of cancers. DNA microarray technology can analyze the expression of many genes simultaneously and has identified numerous differentially expressed genes (811). For example, Clark et al. (12) found that the small guanosine 5'-triphosphatase RhoC, when overexpressed, enhanced metastasis.
To identify genes associated with invasion, we used an established panel of human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines (13,14) with different invasive activities (CL10 cells and its sublines CL11, CL15, and CL15-F4 cells, in ascending order of activity), a complementary DNA (cDNA) microarray, and a colorimetric detection system (14,15). We selected a differentially expressed gene, collapsin response mediator protein-1 (CRMP-1), and determined whether its expression was associated with the invasive activity and metastasis of cancer cells.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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The panel of human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines, CL10, CL11, CL15, and CL15-F4, in ascending order of invasiveness, was established in our laboratory (13,14). Cells were grown in RPMI-1640 medium (Life Technologies, Inc. [GIBCO BRL], Rockville, MD) with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS) (Life Technologies, Inc.) and 2 mM L-glutamine (Life Technologies, Inc.) at 37 °C in a humidified atmosphere of 5% CO295% air. CL10 is the parent cell line; CL11 and CL15 are sublines that were selected from CL10 cultures with a polycarbonate membrane coated with Matrigel (Collaborative Biomedical, Becton Dickinson Labware, Bedford, MA) in a Transwell invasion chamber (13). The cells that migrated through the membrane were harvested. The sublines from the first and fifth rounds of selection were designed CL11 and CL15, respectively (13). In the next selection step, CL15 cells were injected into the tail vein of severe combined immunodeficient mice, and cells from a lung tumor that arose were isolated and cloned. After four repeated in vivo selections, the cell line obtained was designated CL15-F4 (14).
Adherent cells were detached from the culture dishes with trypsinEDTA (Sigma, Deisenhofen, Germany). Before functional assays, only 0.02% EDTA was used to avoid damaging cell-surface antigens.
Microarray Analysis
Microarrays containing 9600 cDNA sequences from the Integrated Molecular Analysis of Genome and their Expression Consortium libraries (Research Genetics, Huntsville, AL) were prepared on nylon membranes by an arraying machine built inhouse as described previously (11,14,15). Experiments, in which a colorimetric detection method was used, were performed as described by Hong et al. (11) and Chen et al. (14,15). Briefly, each cell line was grown to a confluence of 80%, cells were cultured in fresh medium for 24 hours before messenger RNA (mRNA) was isolated, and the time was minimized between removal of cells from the incubator and lysis. Total cellular RNAs were extracted with RNAzol B (Biotecx Laboratories, Houston, TX), and mRNAs were isolated with oligotex-dT resin (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany). Purified mRNA (5 µg) derived from each cell line was reversed transcribed and labeled with biotin. The microarray carrying the double-stranded cDNAs was prehybridized in 7 mL of hybridization buffer (5x standard saline citrate [SSC], 0.1% N-lauroylsarcosine, 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate [SDS], 1% blocking reagent mixture manufactured by Roche Molecular Biochemicals, Mannheim, Germany, and salmon-sperm DNA [50 µg/mL]) at 68 °C for 1 hour. The biotin-labeled cDNA probes and hybridization solution (80 µL) containing human COT-1 DNA instead of salmon-sperm DNA were sealed with a microarray in a hybridization bag, and the bag was incubated at 95 °C for 2 minutes and then at 68 °C for 12 hours. After hybridization, the color reaction was initiated by incubating the membrane for 2 hours in 5 mL containing -galactosidase-conjugated streptavidin (diluted 1 : 700; Life Technologies, Inc.), 4% polyethylene glycol (molecular weight, 8000; Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO), and 0.3% bovine serum albumin (BSA) in Tris-buffered saline (pH = 7.4). Color reactions were stopped by adding phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) containing 20 mM EDTA. The microarray image was digitized by use of a drum scanner (ScanView, Foster City, CA); image analysis and spot quantification were then done by the MuCDA program written inhouse and available via anonymous ftp at ftp://genestamp.ibms.sinica.edu.tw/marray/software. Gene expression data were processed by use of the protocol and program described by Iyer et al (10). Genes were grouped on the basis of expression profiles by the self-organizing maps algorithm, described by Tamayo et al. (16), and then genes whose expression profiles correlated either positively or negatively with the invasiveness of cell lines were identified. We selected CRMP-1 for further study.
Molecular Cloning and Plasmid Constructs
RNA from CL10 cells was reverse transcribed with SuperScript II reverse transcriptase (Life Technologies, Inc.) and random hexamer. cDNA encoding the entire human CRMP-1 coding region (GenBank accession number D78012) was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Primer sequences were as follows: 5' primer = 5'-CTCCGTCCGTGTCTCTATCC-3' (nucleotides 2443 of D78012); 3' primer = 5'-CCTCCATCAGCACCAACTAAA-3' (complementary to nucleotides 19551975). The reaction mixture was denatured at 94 °C for 30 seconds, annealed at 55 °C for 30 seconds, and extended at 72 °C for 3 minutes; this cycle was repeated 30 times. The 1952-base-pair CRMP-1 cDNA fragment was cloned into a TA vector, according to the manufacturer's instructions (pGEM-T-Easy cloning kit; Promega Corp., Madison, WI), and sequenced with an autosequencer (model ABI 377; PE Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA). Sequence analysis showed 100% homology to the published sequence (17) for CRMP-1 cDNA.
pCIneo-CRMP-1 was created by inserting nucleotides 241975 of the CRMP-1 cDNA between the EcoRI and NotI sites of a pCI-neo mammalian expression vector (Promega Corp.) and used for transfection and expression of CRMP-1 in CL15 cells. Nucleotides 3761975 of the CRMP-1 cDNA were inserted into the PstI and EcoRI sites of a pRSET C prokaryotic expression vector (Invitrogen Corp., Carlsbad, CA) to construct pRSET-CRMP-1, which was used to produce the protein to immunize mice. The coding region of CRMP-1 cDNA (nucleotides 1511869) was amplified by PCR from pCIneo-CRMP-1 by use of the forward primer 5'-ATTGACTCGAGATGTCGTACCAGGGCAAGAA-3' (nucleotides 151170 from CRMP-1 sequence), which introduced an XhoI site (underlined), and the reverse primer 5'-ATATCGAATTCTCAACCGAGGCTGGTGAT-3' (complementary to nucleotides 18521869), which introduced an EcoRI site (underlined). For protein localization study, the CRMP-1 fragment amplified in this manner was inserted inframe between the XhoI and EcoRI sites of a cytomegalovirus promoter-driven enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expression vector, pEGFP-C3 (Clontech, Palo Alto, CA), yielding pEGFP-CRMP-1, which produced the EGFP-tagged CRMP-1 protein. These constructs were isolated from plasmid clones and sequenced on both strands with an autosequencer (model ABI 377; PE Applied Biosystems).
Monoclonal Antibody (MAb) Production
pRSET-CRMP-1 was inserted into Escherichia coli BL21(DE3)pLysS cells. The CRMP-1 protein fused with polyhistidine, named His-CRMP-(amino acids 76572), was obtained as inclusion bodies, which were solubilized. The fusion protein was then purified by SDSpolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) in 12.5% gels. Six-week-old BALB/c mice were given a subcutaneous injection of purified fusion protein in 0.1 mL of Freund's complete adjuvant (Life Technologies, Inc.) emulsified in 0.1 mL of sterile PBS; every 3 weeks, they then received subcutaneous booster injections of fusion protein in 0.1 mL of Freund's incomplete adjuvant (Life Technologies, Inc.) emulsified in 0.1 mL of sterile PBS. We checked the antibody titer by western blot analysis; preimmune serum was the negative control. To generate hybridomas, splenocytes from one immunized mouse were fused with mouse myeloma cells at a ratio of 10 : 3 in the presence of polyethylene glycol (molecular weight, 1500; Roch GmbH, Mannheim, Germany). Hybridomas were plated in 96-well plates in Dulbecco's modified Eagle mediumRPMI-1640 medium, 1 : 1 (vol/vol), supplemented with 15% NuSerum (Collaborative Research, Becton Dickinson Labware) and hypoxanthineaminopterinthymidine (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO). Supernatants were screened by western blotting against the His-CRMP-(amino acids 76572) fusion protein.
Northern and Western Blot Analysis
For northern blot analysis, each lane of an 0.8% agaroseformaldehyde gel was loaded with 20 µg of total RNA. After electrophoresis in 1x 3-(N-morpholino) propanesulphonic acid running buffer, containing 20 mM MOPS (pH 7.0), 5 mM sodium acetate, and 0.1 mM EDTA (pH 8.0), RNAs were blotted onto Hybond-N+ nylon membranes (Amersham, Buckinghamshire, U.K.) by the capillary method and were UV-cross-linked to the membranes. Blots were prehybridized in a solution of 5x SSC, 5x Denhardt's solution, 50 mM sodium phosphate (pH 6.2), salmon-sperm DNA (100 µg/mL), and 50% deionized formamide for 4 hours at 42 °C. Denhardt's solution (1x) contains 0.02% polyvinylpyrrolidone, 0.02% Ficoll, and 0.02% BSA. Membranes were then hybridized with 32P-labeled DNA probes synthesized by the Rediprime DNA labeling system (Amersham Life Science, Inc.). Hybridization was performed for 18 hours at 42 °C in a solution of 5x SSC, 5x Denhardt's solution, 10% dextran sulfate, 20 mM sodium phosphate (pH 6.2), salmon-sperm DNA (100 µg/mL), and 50% deionized formamide. Membranes were washed for two 15-minute periods in 2x SSC0.5% SDS at room temperature, then for two 30-minute periods in 0.1x SSC0.1% SDS at 52 °C, and then exposed to x-ray film overnight at 70 °C. The RNA in each lane was measured by comparing its signal intensity with that of the guanine nucleotide-binding protein -subunit-like (G
-like) probe (a housekeeping gene used as an internal control for RNA quantity) (18).
Proteins in the total cell lysate (5 µg of protein) were separated by SDSPAGE in 12.5% gels and transferred to a polyvinylidene difluoride membrane (Immobilon-P membrane; Millipore Corp., Bedford, MA) by electrotransfer. After the blot was blocked in a solution of 5% skim milk, 0.1% Tween 20, and PBS, membrane-bound proteins were probed with MAbs, the membrane was washed, and the secondary antibody (horseradish peroxidase-conjugated anti-mouse immunoglobulin G antibody [Amersham]) was applied. Protein bands were detected with enhanced chemiluminescence (Amersham Life Science, Inc.) and x-ray film.
Transfection and Selection
pCIneo-CRMP-1 plasmids (5 µg) were transfected into 70% confluent CL15 cells with 20 U of LipofectAMINE reagent (Life Technologies, Inc.) as described previously (11). Other CL15 cells were transfected with the pCI-neo vector containing no insert (mock transfected) as a control. Gentamicin (G418; Life Technologies, Inc.) was added to 500 µg/mL for the selection of stable transfectants. Selection medium was changed every 3 days for a 3-week period. Clones of resistant cells were isolated and allowed to proliferate for further characterization. Integration of transfected plasmid DNA into chromosomal DNA was confirmed by northern blot analysis. For transient transfections, 70% confluent cultures of CL10 and CL15 cells were transfected with the pEGFP-CRMP-1 plasmid as above. Forty-eight hours later, living cells were examined directly and photographed with a Zeiss Axiphot epifluorescence microscope equipped with an MRC-1000 laser scanning confocal imaging system (Bio-Rad Laboratories, Rockville Center, NY) (11).
In Vitro Invasion Assay and Cell Growth Assay
The invasive activity of transfected clones was examined by use of a membrane invasion culture system (11), in which a polycarbonate membrane with 10-µm pores (Nucleopore Corp., Pleasanton, CA) coated with Matrigel (Collaborative Biomedical, Becton Dickinson Labware) at 5 mg/mL was placed between the upper and lower well plates of a membrane invasion culture system chamber. Cells were suspended in RPMI-1640 medium containing 10% NuSerum, and 2.5 x 104 cells were placed into each upper well of the chamber. After incubating for 48 hours at 37 °C, cells that had invaded through the coated membrane were removed from the lower wells with 1 mM EDTA in PBS and dot blotted onto a polycarbonate membrane with 3-µm pores. Blotted cells were stained with propidium iodine (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO), and the number of cells in each blot was counted under a microscope at a magnification of x50 by use of the Analytical Imaging Station software package (Imaging Research Inc., ON, St. Catharines, Canada). Each experiment was performed three times, and each sample was assayed in triplicate.
Cell growth was measured with the modified 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay (19). Four thousand cells and 100 µL of culture medium per well of a 96-well plate were incubated for up to 4 days, and 10 µL of MTT (5 mg/mL) was added to each well and incubated for 4 hours at 37 °C. The reaction was stopped by adding 100 µL of 0.04 N HCl in isopropanol to each well, with vigorous mixing to solubilize colored crystals produced by the reaction. The absorbance at 570 nm relative to the absorbance at 630 nm, as the reference wavelength, was measured by a multiwell scanning spectrophotometer (Titertek Multiskan; Flow Laboratories, McLean, VA). Cell viability was examined by trypan blue dye exclusion. Each data point is the average of six determinations, and each experiment was repeated at least three times.
Filamentous Actin (F-actin) Staining
Cells grown on coverslips were washed three times in PBS, fixed for 10 minutes in 3.7% paraformaldehyde in PBS, and permeabilized for 10 minutes with 0.1% Triton X-100 in PBS. Nonspecific binding sites were blocked by a 15-minute incubation in 5% nonfat milk and PBS. After a 5-minute wash with PBS, cells were incubated with rhodamine-conjugated phalloidin at 5 U/mL (Molecular Probe, Eugene, OR) for 30 minutes. After additional PBS washes, cells were mounted on a slide in mounting medium (2% n-propyl gallate and 60% glycerol in PBS [pH 8.0]). Cells were examined and photographed with a Zeiss Axiphot epifluorescence microscope (Bio-Rad Laboratories) on Kodak T-max 400 film (Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, NY).
Patients and Specimens
Eighty consecutive patients who underwent surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer (performed by Y.-C. Lee) at the National Taiwan University Hospital from September 1, 1994, through December 31, 1996, were included in the study. This investigation was performed after approval by the Institutional Review Board of the National Taiwan University Hospital. Written informed consent was obtained from all patients. None of the patients had received neoadjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy before surgery. Specimens of lung cancer tissue and adjacent normal lung tissue obtained at surgery were immediately snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at 80 °C until use. World Health Organization criteria (20) were used for histologic classification. Tumor size, local invasion, and lymph node metastasis were determined at pathologic examination. The final disease stage was determined by a combination of surgical and pathologic findings, according to the current tumornodemetastasis system for lung cancer staging (21). Among the 80 patients, 51 were men and 29 were women (mean age [± standard deviation] = 62.9 ± 10.5 years), 38 of whom had squamous cell carcinoma and 42 of whom had adenocarcinoma. Nineteen of 51 men and 23 of 29 women had adenocarcinoma. The sex difference was statistically significant (P<.001, Fisher's exact test; two-sided) and consistent with the previous epidemiologic report in Taiwan (22). The surgicalpathology stage of disease was stage I in 31 patients, stage II in 19, stage III in 24, and stage IV in six. Tumor status was T1 in 15 patients, T2 in 42, T3 in nine, and T4 in 14. Forty-two patients had no lymph node metastasis (N0), and 38 had regional or mediastinal lymph node metastasis (N1 in 19 patients, N2 in 18 patients, and N3 in one patient). Follow-up data were obtained from the patients' medical charts and from our tumor registry service. Follow-up times, ranging from 6.5 to 70 months, lasted until June 30, 2000. Relapse time was calculated from the date of surgery to the date of detection of local recurrence or systemic metastasis. Survival time was calculated from the date of surgery to the date of death. Patients who died of postoperative complications within 30 days after surgery were excluded from the survival analysis. The relapse time ranged from 2 to 70 months (median, 17.2 months), and the survival time ranged from 6.5 to 70 months (median, 34.7 months).
Real-Time Quantitative Reverse Transcription (RT)PCR
Total RNA was extracted from resected cancer tissue with an RNA extraction kit (RNeasy Mini Kit; Qiagen, Valencia, CA). The quality of RNA in samples was determined by electrophoresis through agarose gels and staining with ethidium bromide; 18S and 28S RNA bands were visualized with UV illumination. The samples used for the standard curve in the real-time quantitative RTPCR were prepared by serial dilution of a specific RNA sample to contain 250, 50, 10, and 2 ng. The serially diluted samples were distributed into aliquots and stored at 80 °C until use. The primers used, based on the cDNA sequence of CRMP-1, were as follows: forward primer = 5'-CCACGATGATCATTGACCATGT-3'; reverse primer = 5'-AGGGAGTAATCACAGCAGGATTTG-3'. The sequence of the probe used to detect and quantify the RTPCR product was 5'-AGCCTACTGACCTCTTTCGAGAAGTGGCA-3' (23). The probe was labeled at the 5' end with carboxyfluorescein and at the 3' end with N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl-6-carboxyrhodamine. The primers and probe used for quantitative RTPCR of the TATA-box-binding protein (TBP) mRNA (internal control, GenBank accession number X54993) were as described by Bieche et al. (24). The identities of PCR products were confirmed by DNA sequencing. Each assay included samples to determine a standard curve, a no-template control, and total RNA samples in triplicate. The reaction conditions were as described previously (25). The fluorescence emitted by the reporter dye was detected online in real time with the ABI prism 7700 sequence detection system (PE Applied Biosystems). The threshold cycle (CT) is the fractional cycle number at which the fluorescence generated by cleavage of the probe exceeds a fixed level above baseline. For a chosen threshold, a smaller starting copy number results in a higher CT value. In this study, we used TBP mRNA as an internal control (24). The relative amount of tissue CRMP-1 mRNA, standardized against the amount of TBP mRNA, was expressed as CT = [CT(CRMP1) CT(TBP)]. The ratio of the number of CRMP-1 mRNA copies to the number of TBP mRNA copies was then calculated as 2
CT x K, where K is a constant (25).
Statistical Analysis
Where appropriate, the data are presented as the mean ± standard deviation. All statistical analyses were performed with the Statistical Program for Social Sciences program package, version 8.0 (Chicago, IL). Comparisons of data between groups were made with Student's t test. The paired Kendall's W test was used to compare the CT of CRMP-1 mRNA expression between tumor samples and paired normal tissues. Fisher's exact tests and Student's t tests were used to compare the clinicopathologic characteristics of tumors (and patients) with high and low expression of CRMP-1 mRNA. Survival curves were obtained by the KaplanMeier method, and the difference in relapse time between groups with low and high expression of CRMP-1 was analyzed with the log-rank test (as was the difference in survival). All statistical tests were two-sided. P values of less than .05 were considered to be statistically significant.
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RESULTS |
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We used the cDNA microarray technique with colorimetric detection to identify differentially expressed genes associated with invasive activity in a panel of lung cancer cell lines, CL10, CL11, CL15, and CL15-F4, shown in increasing order of invasiveness. All experiments with the cDNA microarrays were performed in triplicate. Cell lines were grown independently in three cultures; for each culture, the entire process was carried out independently from RNA extraction to image analysis. The variation (mean ± standard deviation) in the triplicate experiments was 7.3% ± 3.3%. Cluster analysis of cDNA microarray data revealed that about 500 genes were positively or negatively associated with cancer cell invasiveness (14). Most of these genes were involved in angiogenesis, cell motility, adhesion, and proliferation. However, we found that the expression of CRMP-1 mRNA was negatively associated with cell invasiveness (Fig. 1, A) and have further characterized the expression of this gene.
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Overexpression of CRMP-1 and Inhibition of Invasion In Vitro
To investigate whether the invasive phenotype and CRMP-1 expression were associated, CRMP-1 cDNA was inserted into the pCI-neo vector, the construct was transfected into CL15 cells, and five clones that stably expressed CRMP-1 were isolated. Transfected clones expressed higher levels of CRMP-1 transcription (Fig. 1, D) and translation (Fig. 1
, E) products than the control clone transfected with pCI-neo alone. We used an in vitro-reconstituted basement membrane invasion assay to investigate whether CRMP-1 expression affected the invasive activity of cancer cells. After a 48-hour incubation, we noted a statistically significant reduction (40%60%) in the invasive activity of CRMP-1-expressing clones compared with control clones (P<.001, Student's t test; Fig. 1
, F). CRMP-1-transfected clone B5 expressed less CRMP-1 protein than did clone C6 (Fig. 1
, E), but the invasion-suppression abilities of both clones were similar (Fig. 1
, F), suggesting that there were other pathways that regulated the invasion ability of cancer cells or that the invasion-suppression ability of CRMP-1 protein was limited by an as yet unidentified protein that interacts with CRMP-1.
To determine how CRMP-1 might regulate the invasive ability of tumor cells, we first examined cell proliferation. We used a modified MTT assay to measure in vitro cell growth rates of CRMP-1-transfected cells and mock-transfected cells. In vitro proliferation was essentially unchanged by altering CRMP-1 expression (data not shown), ruling out the possibility that CRMP-1 is involved in regulating cell proliferation.
F-actin Polymerization in CRMP-1-Overexpressing Cells
F-actin is continuously polymerized and depolymerized in motile cells (26). Tumor-invasive activity is associated with the polymerized actin that is temporally and spatially found in lamellar protrusions in motile cells and plays a key role in cell motility (27). Phalloidin binds tightly to actin subunits in filaments but not to free actin monomers. We stained CL10, CL11, CL15, and CL15-F4 cells with rhodamine-conjugated phalloidin and examined the cells with fluorescence microscopy. There were fewer filopodia in CL10 cells than in CL15 or CL15-F4 cells (data not shown). We also stained the F-actin in transfected cell clones. CRMP-1-transfected cells had decreased invasive activity (Fig. 1, F) and a rounded morphology (Fig. 2
, A). Mock-transfected cells had as many filopodia as parental CL15 cells, but CRMP-1-transfected CL15 cells had fewer filopodia (Fig. 2
, A), closer to the number on CL10 cells.
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To determine the intracellular localization of CRMP-1 in different stages of the cell cycle, we cloned the full coding region of CRMP-1 cDNA into a mammalian transfection vector so that an enhanced EGFP gene was fused to the CRMP-1 gene in CL10 and CL15 cells. Fluorescent images, obtained by laser scanning confocal microscopy, showed that EGFP-tagged CRMP-1 was distributed similarly in CL10 and CL15 cells. At interphase, CRMP-1 was diffusely distributed in the cytoplasm (Fig. 2, B), a pattern distinct from that of microtubules and F-actin. However, in some EGFP-CRMP-1-transfected cells, CRMP-1 was located in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus (Fig. 2
, B). At prophase, some of CRMP-1 accumulated at the centrosomes (Fig. 2
, B). During metaphase, most CRMP-1 was associated with the mitotic spindle and the centrosomes (Fig. 2
, B). During anaphase, CRMP-1 was still associated with mitotic spindle (Fig. 2
, B). During very late telophase, CRMP-1 was associated with the midbody (Fig. 2
, B).
Association of CRMP-1 mRNA Expression in Lung Cancer Tissue, Postoperative Relapse, and Survival of Patients With Lung Cancer
Real-time quantitative RTPCR was used to determine numbers of CRMP-1 transcripts in normal lung and lung cancer tissues from 80 patients with lung cancer. Expression of CRMP-1 mRNA in all 80 tumor samples was statistically significantly lower than in adjacent normal tissue (P<.001, paired Kendall's W test; two-sided). The CT value for the 80 tumor samples ranged from -5.67 to 3.73, with a mean of -1.94 (95% confidence interval [CI] = -2.41 to -1.47) and a median of -1.95. We arbitrarily used the median value to classify patients into high-expression or low-expression groups (Table 1
). Low-expression patients were more likely than high-expression patients to have advanced disease (stage III or IV; P = .010) and lymph node metastasis (N1, N2, and N3; P = .043). The median duration to postoperative recurrence was also longer in high-expression patients (30.5 months; 95% CI = 5.6 to 55.5 months) than in low-expression patients (15.9 months; 95% CI = 8.3 to 23.5 months) (log-rank test, P = .030; Fig. 3
, A). For high-expression patients, the probability of survival leveled off at .52, and they had a statistically significantly longer survival than low-expression patients (median survival, 27.9 months; 95% CI = 20.8 to 35.0 months; log-rank test, P = .016; Fig. 3
, B).
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DISCUSSION |
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Members of the CRMP family of phosphoproteins may mediate semaphorin/collapsin-induced growth cone collapse and are involved in axonal guidance and neuronal differentiation (2834). Five members of the CRMP gene family (CRMP-1, CRMP-2, CRMP-3, CRMP-4, and CRMP-5), encoding closely related 60- to 66-kd proteins, have been cloned (2834). The best-characterized function of these proteins remains the repulsive guidance of nerve axons (28), but the molecular mechanism is not yet characterized (28). CRMP family members have a 50%70% amino-acid sequence homology (17,28,30) and are believed to form heterotetramers (30,35). However, each CRMP has a unique transcript and is expressed in a distinct pattern during development of the nervous system and nerve growth factor-induced neuronal differentiation (17,34,36). Transcription of CRMP genes is differentially regulated (3739). CRMP-2 is associated with neurofibrillary tangles in patients with Alzheimer's disease (40). CRMP-3 and CRMP-5 are recognized by autoantibodies from patients with small-cell lung cancers with paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome (41,42). In this study, we show that CRMP-1 may be involved in cancer cell invasion. Although we investigated the expression of CRMP-2, -3, -4, and -5 mRNAs in the lung cancer cell lines CL10, CL11, CL15, and CL15-F4 by using northern blot and RTPCR analyses, we detected no association between these CRMPs and invasiveness.
Recent studies demonstrated that members of the semaphorin/collapsin families might control the movement of cells (43), and neuropilinplexin complexes have been identified as semaphorin receptors (44). We used semiquantitative RTPCR to determine the mRNA expression of semaphrin/collapsin-related proteins in CL10, CL11, CL15, and CL15-F4 cells (unpublished data) and found that expression of neuropilin-1 and neuropilin-2 was positively associated with invasiveness. These four cell lines expressed similar levels of plexin-A1, and expression of Sema3A was inversely associated with the invasiveness of these cells, consistent with reports that Sema3A inhibits migration of endothelial cells (45) and the branching morphogenesis of fetal mouse lung (46). Expression patterns of Sema3B, Sema3C, and Sema3F in CL10, CL11, CL15, and CL15-F4 cells were not associated with invasiveness. However, Sema3B and Sema3F genes have been proposed as tumor suppressor genes because they were located in the 3p21.3 region, where homozygous deletions have been identified in several small-cell lung cancers (4649). The localization and expression of Sema3F in lung cancer tissue and cell lines have suggested that it has a role in cell adhesion and cell migration (50), and Martin-Satué and Blanco (51) have found that Sema3C mRNA is overexpressed in metastatic human lung adenocarcinoma cell lines.
Invasion of cancer cells consists of a series of steps, including the attachment of the cells to an extracellular matrix, production of matrix-degrading enzymes, and increased cell motility (2). Actin plays a key role in various cell motility systems (27,52), including filopodia, highly dynamic actin-containing structures that protrude from the leading edges of motile cells. Filopodia are the first locomotory structures to appear in stimulated migratory cells and act as motors to pull the leading edges of the cell forward (5254). Thus, we investigated the effect of CRMP-1 on cell morphology and the actin cytoskeleton. Untransfected CL15 cells had an elongated morphology, but CRMP-1-transfected CL15 cells had a rounded morphology similar to that of CL10 cells. We detected changes in the distribution of F-actin and the loss of filopodia in CRMP-1-transfected CL15 cells, compared with untransfected CL15 cells, resulting in a pattern similar to that of CL10 cells. This is in contrast to the results of Gu and Ihara (55), who reported no apparent change in the organization of actin filaments in Neuro2a cells overexpressing CRMP-2. Thus, each CRMP family member may have a distinct biologic role.
The distribution of CRMP-1 changes dynamically during the cell cycle. In interphase, CRMP-1 was dispersed diffusely throughout the cytoplasm similar to the distribution of CRMP-2 (55) and was sometimes observed in the nucleus. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a CRMP family member localized to the nucleus. Although the CRMP-1 sequence does have a nuclear localization signal (bipartite = RKAFPEHLYQRVKIRNK beginning at amino acid 471) (56), the biologic activity of CRMP-1 in the nucleus is not clear. In mitotic cells, CRMP-1 is associated with microtubule-containing structures. Certain proteins, such as p53 and BRCA1, that associate with the centrosome, mitotic spindle, and midbody are known to regulate the cell cycle (57,58). Thus, CRMP-1 may interact with other proteins, may be a component of the mitotic machinery, and may participate in cell cycle regulation. The identification of partners for CRMP-1 in various cellular activities should provide further clues to its biologic roles and clarify the mechanisms underlying cancer invasion.
Acquisition of invasive properties is a key event in tumor progression. Large-scale gene expression analysis has allowed identification of the differentially expressed genes responsible for invasion, including CRMP-1. We found that expression of CRMP-1 affects the invasive activity of lung cancer cells in a functional assay, that CRMP-1 is differentially expressed in tumor tissues, and that its expression is related to tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and survival of patients. These results indicate that CRMP-1 may be involved in the inhibition of tumor cell invasion and metastasis. Further investigation is needed to elucidate the mechanism by which CRMP-1 modulates carcinoma invasion and metastasis.
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NOTES |
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We thank Yi-Wen Chu, Marine Kao (National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan), and Kuan-Yu Chu (Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Taiwan) for technical assistance and Wen-Yi Shau (National Taiwan University) for statistical analysis.
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REFERENCES |
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Manuscript received February 26, 2001; revised July 16, 2001; accepted July 23, 2001.
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