Thyroid follicular adenomas and carcinomas: molecular profiling provides evidence for a continuous evolution.

Non-autonomous thyroid nodules are common in the general population with a proportion found to be cancerous. A current challenge in the field is to be able to distinguish benign adenoma (FA) from preoperatively malignant thyroid follicular carcinoma (FTC), which are very similar both histologically and genetically. One controversial issue, which is currently not understood, is whether both tumor types represent different molecular entities or rather a biological continuum. To gain a better insight into FA and FTC tumorigenesis, we defined their molecular profiles by mRNA and miRNA microarray. Expression data were analyzed, validated by qRT-PCR and compared with previously published data sets. The majority of deregulated mRNAs were common between FA and FTC and were downregulated, however FTC showed additional deregulated mRNA. Both types of tumors share deregulated pathways, molecular functions and biological processes. The additional deregulations in FTC include the lipid transport process that may be involved in tumor progression. The strongest candidate genes which may be able to discriminate follicular adenomas and carcinomas, CRABP1, FABP4 and HMGA2, were validated in independent samples by qRT-PCR and immunohistochemistry. However, they were not able to adequately classify FA or FTC, supporting the notion of continuous evolving tumors, whereby FA and FTC appear to show quantitative rather than qualitative changes. Conversely, miRNA expression profiles showed few dysregulations in FTC, and even fewer in FA, suggesting that miRNA play a minor, if any, role in tumor progression.

microRNA expression in autonomous thyroid adenomas: Correlation with mRNA regulation.

The objective of the study was to identify the deregulated miRNA in autonomous adenoma and to correlate the data with mRNA regulation. Seven autonomous adenoma with adjacent healthy thyroid tissues were investigated. Twelve miRNAs were downregulated and one was upregulated in the tumors. Combining bioinformatic mRNA target prediction and microarray data on mRNA regulations allowed to identify mRNA targets of our deregulated miRNAs. A large enrichment in mRNA encoding proteins involved in extracellular matrix organization and different phosphodiesterases were identified among these putative targets. The direct interaction between miR-101-3p and miR-144-3p and PDE4D mRNA was experimentally validated. The global miRNA profiles were not greatly modified, confirming the definition of these tumors as minimal deviation tumors. These results support a role for miRNA in the regulation of extracellular matrix proteins and tissue remodeling occurring during tumor development, and in the important negative feedback of the cAMP pathway, which limits the consequences of its constitutive activation in these tumors.

MiRNA expression may account for chronic but not for acute regulation of mRNA expression in human thyroid tumor models.

BACKGROUND: For thyroid tumorigenesis, two main human in vitro models are available: primary cultures of human thyrocytes treated with TSH or EGF/serum as models for autonomous adenomas (AA) or papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC) respectively, and human thyroid tumor derived cell lines. Previous works of our group have assessed properties of those models, with a special emphasis on mRNA regulations. It is often assumed that miRNA may be one of the primary events inducing these mRNA regulations. METHODS: The purpose of this study was to investigate the representativity of those models to study microRNA regulations and their relation with mRNA expression. To achieve this aim, the miRNA expressions profiles of primary cultures treated with TSH or EGF/serum and of 6 thyroid cancer cell lines were compared to the expression profiles of 35 tumor tissues obtained by microarrays. RESULTS: Our data on primary cultures have shown that the TSH or EGF/serum treatment did not greatly modify the microRNA expression profiles, which is contrary to what is observed for mRNA expression profiles, although they still evolved differently according to the treatment. The analysis of miRNA and mRNA expressions profiles in the cell lines has shown that they have evolved into a common, dedifferentiated phenotype, closer to ATC than to the tumors they are derived from. CONCLUSIONS: Long-terms TSH or EGF/serum treatments do not mimic AA or PTC respectively in terms of miRNA expression as they do for mRNA, suggesting that the regulations of mRNA expression induced by these physiological agents occur independently of miRNA. The general patterns of miRNA expression in the cell lines suggest that they represent a useful model for undifferentiated thyroid cancer. Mirna probably do not mediate the rapid changes in gene expression in rapid cell biology regulation.

miRNA expression in anaplastic thyroid carcinomas.

Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma (ATC) is the most lethal form of thyroid neoplasia and represents an end stage of thyroid tumor progression. No effective treatment exists so far. In this study, we analyzed the miRNA expression profiles of 11 ATC by microarrays and their relationship with the mRNA expression profiles of the same 11 ATC samples. ATC show distinct miRNA expression profiles compared to other less aggressive thyroid tumor types. ATC show 18 commonly deregulated miRNA compared to normal thyroid tissue (17 downregulated and 1 upregulated miRNA). First, the analysis of a combined approach of the mRNA gene expression and of the bioinformatically predicted mRNA targets of the deregulated miRNA suggested a role for these regulations in the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) process in ATC. Second, the direct interaction between one of the upregulated mRNA target, the LOX gene which is an EMT key player, and a downregulated miRNA, the miR-29a, was experimentally validated by a luciferase assay in HEK cell. Third, we confirmed that the ATC tissue is composed of about 50% of tumor associated macrophages (TAM) and suggested, by taking into account our data and published data, their most likely direct or paracrine intercommunication between them and the thyroid tumor cells, amplifying the tumor aggressiveness. Finally, we demonstrated by in situ hybridization a specific thyrocyte localization of 3 of the deregulated miRNA: let-7g, miR-29a and miR-30e and we pointed out the importance of identifying the cell type localization before drawing any conclusion on the physiopathological role of a given gene.

Hallmarks of cancer: of all cancer cells, all the time?

In two landmark articles, Hanahan and Weinberg synthesized into one conceptual framework 'the hallmarks of cancer', a massive amount of information describing the characteristics of a cancer cell. Although this is neither the intention nor the belief of the authors, hallmarks are often interpreted as applying to a canonic cancer cell, or equally to all cells within a cancer. In this article, we clarify the separate concepts of causes, oncogenic events, signal transduction programs, and hallmarks to show that there is no unimodal relation between these concepts but a complex network of interrelations that vary in different cells, between cells, and at different times in any given cell. We consider cancer as an evolving, dynamic, and heterogeneous system, explaining, at least in part, the difficulty of treating cancer and supporting the use of simultaneous, multitarget therapies.

Thyroid cancer cell lines: an overview.

Human thyroid cancer cell lines are the most used models for thyroid cancer studies. They must be used with detailed knowledge of their characteristics. These in vitro cell lines originate from differentiated and dedifferentiated in vivo human thyroid tumors. However, it has been shown that mRNA expression profiles of these cell lines were closer to dedifferentiated in vivo thyroid tumors (anaplastic thyroid carcinoma, ATC) than to differentiated ones. Here an overview of the knowledge of these models was made. The mutational status of six human thyroid cancer cell lines (WRO, FTC133, BCPAP, TPC1, K1, and 8505C) was in line with previously reported findings for 10 genes frequently mutated in thyroid cancer. However, the presence of a BRAF mutation (T1799A: V600E) in WRO questions the use of this cell line as a model for follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC). Next, to investigate the biological meaning of the modulated mRNAs in these cells, a pathway analysis on previously obtained mRNA profiles was performed on five cell lines. In five cell lines, the MHC class II pathway was down-regulated and in four of them, ribosome biosynthesis and translation pathways were up-regulated. mRNA expression profiles of the cell lines were also compared to those of the different types of thyroid cancers. Three datasets originating from different microarray platforms and derived from distinct laboratories were used. This meta-analysis showed a significant higher correlation between the profiles of the thyroid cancer cell lines and ATC, than to differentiated thyroid tumors (i.e., PTC or FTC) specifically for DNA replication. This already observed higher correlation was obtained here with an increased number of in vivo tumors and using different platforms. In summary, this would suggest that some papillary thyroid carcinoma or follicular thyroid carcinoma (PTC or FTC) cell lines (i.e., TPC-1) might have partially lost their original DNA synthesis/replication regulation mechanisms during their in vitro cell adaptation/evolution.