1. NOTCH Signaling via WNT Regulates the Proliferation of Alternative, CCR2-Independent Tumor-Associated Macrophages in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
- Author
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Ke-Feng Dou, Hong-Yan Qin, Jun-Long Zhao, Hua Han, Yu-Chen Ye, Shi-Qian Liang, Shuqiang Yue, Chun-Chen Gao, Yitong Lu, Ying-Ying Lu, Lin Wang, and Yang Yang
- Subjects
Male ,0301 basic medicine ,Cancer Research ,Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ,Receptors, CCR2 ,Cellular differentiation ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Notch signaling pathway ,Biology ,Metastasis ,Carcinoma, Lewis Lung ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Wnt Signaling Pathway ,Cell Proliferation ,Mice, Knockout ,Receptors, Notch ,RBPJ ,Macrophages ,Liver Neoplasms ,Wnt signaling pathway ,Lewis lung carcinoma ,Cell Differentiation ,medicine.disease ,030104 developmental biology ,Cytokine ,Oncology ,Tumor progression ,Immunoglobulin J Recombination Signal Sequence-Binding Protein ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Cancer research ,Colorectal Neoplasms - Abstract
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) play pivotal roles in tumor progression and metastasis, but the contribution and regulation of different macrophage populations remain unclear. Here we show that Notch signaling plays distinct roles in regulating different TAM subsets in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Myeloid-specific NOTCH blockade by conditional disruption of recombination signal binding protein Jκ (RBPj cKO) significantly delayed the growth of subcutaneously inoculated Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC), but accelerated orthotopically inoculated hepatic Hepa1-6 tumors in mice. In contrast to subcutaneous LLC, RBPj cKO significantly increased the number of TAMs in hepatic Hepa1-6 tumors despite impeded differentiation of monocyte-derived TAMs (moTAM). The dominating TAMs in orthotopic HCC manifested properties of Kupffer cells (KC) and hence are tentatively named KC-like TAMs (kclTAM). The increased proliferation of RBPj cKO kclTAMs was maintained even in Ccr2−/− mice, in which moTAMs were genetically blocked. NOTCH signaling blockade accelerated proliferation of kclTAMs via enhanced β-catenin–dependent WNT signaling, which also downregulated IL12 and upregulated IL10 expression by kclTAMs likely through c-MYC. In addition, myeloid-specific RBPj cKO facilitated hepatic metastasis of colorectal cancer but suppressed lung metastasis in mice, suggesting that the phenotype of RBPj cKO in promoting tumor growth was liver-specific. In patient-derived HCC biopsies, NOTCH signaling negatively correlated with WNT activation in CD68+ macrophages, which positively correlated with advanced HCC stages. Therefore, NOTCH blockade impedes the differentiation of moTAMs, but upregulates Wnt/β-catenin signaling to promote the proliferation and protumor cytokine production of kclTAMs, facilitating HCC progression and hepatic metastasis of colorectal cancer. Significance: These findings highlight the role of NOTCH and WNT signaling in regulating TAMs in hepatocellular carcinoma.
- Published
- 2019
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