Down regulation of the expression of the p110, p85 and p55 subunits of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase during colon cancer cell anchorage-independent growth.

We have found that analogues of phosphatidylinositol modified at the 3'-myo-inositol position prevent phosphorylation by phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3-kinase) inhibit the anchorage-independent growth of HT-29 human colon adenocarcinoma cells as colonies in soft agarose but have no effect on monolayer growth on a plastic surface. Examination of an incomplete differential display library revealed 3 genes whose expression was increased and 11 genes whose expression was decreased or absent in HT-29 cells growing as colonies compared to monolayer growth. One of the cDNAs corresponding to an mRNA that was expressed only in cells growing as a monolayer was a 126 bp fragment that had 98% identity with a fragment of mRNA for human p55PIK PI3-kinase regulatory subunit. The down regulation of p55PIK gene expression in HT-29 cells growing as colonies was confirmed by RT-PCR using p55PIK-specific oligonucleotide primers. RT-PCR and Northern hybridisation were used to show that the expression of the p110 catalytic subunit and the p85 regulatory subunit of PI3-kinase were also down regulated in HT-29 cells growing as colonies. We measured a decrease of approximately 25% in total PI3-kinase activity of the HT-29 cells grown in soft agarose compared to HT-29 cells grown as monolayer. The results suggest that p110 PI3-kinase activity may be limiting in cells showing anchorage independent-growth which could explain their increased sensitivity, compared to cells in monolayer culture, to inhibitors of PI3-kinase signalling.

The expression of the molecular chaperone calnexin is decreased in cancer cells grown as colonies compared to monolayer.

Differential display was used to identify genes which were differentially expressed when HT-29 human colon adenocarcinoma cells were grown as monolayers attached to plastic or as colonies in soft agarose. One of the gel bands differentially displayed corresponded to a 171 bp fragment that showed 99% identity with a sequence of mRNA for human calnexin. The decrease in calnexin gene expression by HT-29 cells growing as colonies in soft agarose was confirmed by reverse transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) using calnexin-specific primers. We also used RT-PCR to show that the expression of calnexin was decreased in HT-29 cells and MCF-7 human breast adenocarcinoma cells growing in suspension in poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-coated wells compared to cells growing as monolayers. The results suggest that there is a signal for the up-regulation of calnexin expression when cells contact a substrate which allows cell adhesion.