1. Stromal cell-derived factor-1alpha (SDF-1alpha/CXCL12) stimulates ovarian cancer cell growth through the EGF receptor transactivation
- Author
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Rudy Bonavia, Simone Barbero, Adriana Bajetto, Gennaro Schettini, Tullio Florio, Marianna Biglieri, Carola Porcile, Paolo Pirani, and Federica Barbieri
- Subjects
Transcriptional Activation ,Receptors, CXCR4 ,Stromal cell ,EGFR ,Biology ,Protein Serine-Threonine Kinases ,Cell proliferation ,Chemokines ,CXCR4 chemokine receptor ,Ovarian cancer cells ,SDF-1/CXCL12 ,Chemokine receptor ,Cell Line, Tumor ,Proto-Oncogene Proteins ,Humans ,Protein kinase B ,Cell Proliferation ,Ovarian Neoplasms ,Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase 3 ,Dose-Response Relationship, Drug ,Cell growth ,Receptor transactivation ,Carcinoma ,Cell migration ,Cell Biology ,Receptor Cross-Talk ,Chemokine CXCL12 ,Cell biology ,ErbB Receptors ,Genes, src ,Tumor progression ,Cancer research ,Female ,Chemokines, CXC ,Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt ,Intracellular - Abstract
Ovarian cancer (OC) is the leading cause of death in gynecologic diseases in which there is evidence for a complex chemokine network. Chemokines are a family of proteins that play an important role in tumor progression influencing cell proliferation, angiogenic/angiostatic processes, cell migration and metastasis, and, finally, regulating the immune cells recruitment into the tumor mass. We previously demonstrated that astrocytes and glioblastoma cells express both the chemokine receptor CXCR4 and its ligand stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1), and that SDF-1alpha treatment induced cell proliferation, supporting the hypothesis that chemokines may play an important role in tumor cells' growth in vitro. In the present study, we report that CXCR4 and SDF-1 are expressed in OC cell lines. We demonstrate that SDF-1alpha induces a dose-dependent proliferation in OC cells, by the specific interaction with CXCR4 and a biphasic activation of ERK1/2 and Akt kinases. Our results further indicate that CXCR4 activation induces EGF receptor (EGFR) phosphorylation that in turn was linked to the downstream intracellular kinases activation, ERK1/2 and Akt. In addition, we provide evidence for cytoplasmic tyrosine kinase (c-Src) involvement in the SDF-1/CXCR4-EGFR transactivation. These results suggest a possible important "cross-talk" between SDF-1/CXCR4 and EGFR intracellular pathways that may link signals of cell proliferation in ovarian cancer.
- Published
- 2004