RESUMO
BACKGROUND & AIMS: The tumor fate derives from cell autonomous properties and niche microenvironmental cues. The transforming growth factor ß (TGFß) is a major microenvironmental factor for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) influencing tumor dedifferentiation, induction of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) and acquisition of metastatic properties. The loss of the transcriptional factor HNF4α is a predominant mechanism through which HCCs progress to a more aggressive phenotype; its re-expression, reducing tumor formation and repressing EMT program, has been suggested as a therapeutic tool for HCC gene therapy. We investigated the influence of TGFß on the anti-EMT and tumor suppressor HNF4α activity. METHODS: Cell motility and invasion were analyzed by wound healing and invasion assays. EMT was evaluated by RT-qPCR and immunofluorescence. ChIP and EMSA assays were utilized for investigation of the HNF4α DNA binding activity. HNF4α post-translational modifications (PTMs) were assessed by 2-DE analysis. GSK3ß activity was modulated by chemical inhibition and constitutive active mutant expression. RESULTS: We demonstrated that the presence of TGFß impairs the efficiency of HNF4α as tumor suppressor. We found that TGFß induces HNF4α PTMs that correlate with the early loss of HNF4α DNA binding activity on target gene promoters. Furthermore, we identified the GSK3ß kinase as one of the TGFß targets mediating HNF4α functional inactivation: GSK3ß chemical inhibition results in HNF4α DNA binding impairment while a constitutively active GSK3ß mutant impairs the TGFß-induced inhibitory effect on HNF4α tumor suppressor activity. CONCLUSIONS: Our data identify in the dominance of TGFß a limit for the HNF4α-mediated gene therapy of HCC.
Assuntos
Carcinoma Hepatocelular , Terapia Genética , Quinase 3 da Glicogênio Sintase/metabolismo , Fator 4 Nuclear de Hepatócito/metabolismo , Neoplasias Hepáticas , Fator de Crescimento Transformador beta/metabolismo , Animais , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/genética , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/secundário , Carcinoma Hepatocelular/terapia , Linhagem Celular Transformada , Linhagem Celular Tumoral , Movimento Celular/fisiologia , Transição Epitelial-Mesenquimal/genética , Transição Epitelial-Mesenquimal/fisiologia , Regulação Neoplásica da Expressão Gênica/fisiologia , Genes Supressores de Tumor/fisiologia , Glicogênio Sintase Quinase 3 beta , Células Hep G2 , Fator 4 Nuclear de Hepatócito/genética , Hepatócitos/citologia , Humanos , Neoplasias Hepáticas/genética , Neoplasias Hepáticas/patologia , Neoplasias Hepáticas/terapia , Camundongos , Fator de Crescimento Transformador beta/genética , Microambiente Tumoral/genética , Microambiente Tumoral/fisiologiaRESUMO
The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a crucial process, occurring both during development and tumor progression, by which an epithelial cell undergoes a conversion to a mesenchymal phenotype, dissociates from initial contacts and migrates to secondary sites. We recently reported that in hepatocytes the multifunctional cytokine TGFbeta induces a full EMT characterized by (i) Snail induction, (ii) E-cadherin delocalization and down-regulation, (iii) down-regulation of the hepatocyte transcriptional factor HNF4alpha and (iv) up-regulation of mesenchymal and invasiveness markers. In particular, we showed that Snail directly causes the transcriptional down-regulation of E-cadherin and HNF4, while it is not sufficient for the up-regulation of mesenchymal and invasiveness EMT markers. In this paper, we show that in hepatocytes TGFbeta induces a Src-dependent activation of the focal adhesion protein FAK. More relevantly, we gathered results indicating that FAK signaling is required for (i) transcriptional up-regulation of mesenchymal and invasiveness markers and (ii) delocalization of membrane-bound E-cadherin. Our results provide the first evidence of FAK functional role in TGFbeta-mediated EMT in hepatocytes.