RESUMO
Cell stiffness is a potential biomarker for monitoring cellular transformation, metastasis, and drug resistance development. Environmental factors relayed into the cell may result in formation of inheritable markers (e.g., DNA methylation), which provide selectable advantages (e.g., tumor development-favoring changes in cell stiffness). We previously demonstrated that targeted methylation of two tumor suppressor genes, hypermethylated in cancer 1 (HIC1) and Ras-association domain family member 1A (RassF1A), transformed mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Here, transformation-associated cytoskeleton and cell stiffness changes were evaluated. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used to detect cell stiffness, and immunostaining was used to measure cytoskeleton expression and distribution in cultured cells as well as in vivo. HIC1 and RassF1A methylation (me_HR)-transformed MSCs developed into tumors that clonally expanded in vivo. In me_HR-transformed MSCs, cell stiffness was lost, tubulin expression decreased, and F-actin was disorganized; DNA methylation inhibitor treatment suppressed their tumor progression, but did not fully restore their F-actin organization and stiffness. Thus, me_HR-induced cell transformation was accompanied by the loss of cellular stiffness, suggesting that somatic epigenetic changes provide inheritable selection markers during tumor propagation, but inhibition of oncogenic aberrant DNA methylation cannot restore cellular stiffness fully. Therefore, cell stiffness is a candidate biomarker for cells' physiological status.
Assuntos
Metilação de DNA , Fatores de Transcrição Kruppel-Like/genética , Neoplasias Hepáticas/metabolismo , Neoplasias Hepáticas/patologia , Células-Tronco Mesenquimais/patologia , Tubulina (Proteína)/metabolismo , Proteínas Supressoras de Tumor/genética , Animais , Apoptose , Biomarcadores Tumorais , Movimento Celular , Proliferação de Células , Transformação Celular Neoplásica/genética , Transformação Celular Neoplásica/metabolismo , Transformação Celular Neoplásica/patologia , Humanos , Fatores de Transcrição Kruppel-Like/metabolismo , Neoplasias Hepáticas/genética , Células-Tronco Mesenquimais/metabolismo , Camundongos , Camundongos Nus , Prognóstico , Regiões Promotoras Genéticas , Estresse Mecânico , Tubulina (Proteína)/genética , Células Tumorais Cultivadas , Proteínas Supressoras de Tumor/metabolismo , Ensaios Antitumorais Modelo de XenoenxertoRESUMO
Polycomb-group proteins mark specific chromatin conformations in embryonic and somatic stem cells that are critical for maintenance of their "stemness". These proteins also mark altered chromatin modifications identified in various cancers. In normal differentiated cells or advanced cancerous cells, these polycomb-associated loci are frequently associated with increased DNA methylation. It has thus been hypothesized that changes in DNA methylation status within polycomb-associated loci may dictate cell fate and that abnormal methylation within these loci may be associated with tumor development. To assess this, we examined the methylation states of four polycomb target loci -Trip10, Casp8AP2, ENSA, and ZNF484 - in liver cancer. These four targets were selected because their methylation levels are increased during mesenchymal stem cell-to-liver differentiation. We found that these four loci were hypomethylated in most early-stage liver cancer specimens. For comparison, two non-polycomb tumor suppressor genes, HIC1 and RassF1A, were also examined. Whereas the methylation level of HIC1 did not differ significantly between normal and tumor samples, RassF1A was significantly hypermethylated in liver tumor samples. Unsupervised clustering analysis classified the methylation changes within polycomb and non-polycomb targets to be independent, indicating independent epigenetic evolution. Thus, pre-deposited polycomb marks within somatic stem cells may contribute to the determination of methylation changes during hepatic tumorigenesis.