Reduced Malignancy of Super Methotrexate-resistant Osteosarcoma Cells With Dihydrofolate Reductase Amplification Despite Paradoxical Gain of Oncogenic PI3K/AKT/mTOR and c-MYC expression.

Background/aim: Methotrexate (MTX) resistance in osteosarcoma leads to a very poor prognosis. In the present study, in order to further understand the basis and ramifications of MTX resistance in osteosarcoma, we selected an osteosarcoma cell line that has a 5,500-fold-increased MTX IC ₅₀ Materials and Methods: The super MTX-resistant 143B osteosarcoma cells (143B-MTX ^SR ) were selected from MTX-sensitive parental human 143B osteosarcoma cells (143B-P) by continuous culture with step-wise increased amounts of MTX. To compare the malignancy of 143B-MTX ^SR and 143B-P, colony-formation capacity was compared with clonogenic assays on plastic and in soft agar. In addition, tumor growth was compared with orthotopic xenograft mouse models of osteosarcoma. Expression of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/protein kinase B (AKT)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), and myelocytomatosis oncogene (MYC) was examined with western immunoblotting and compared in 143B-MTX ^SR and 143B-P cells.
Results: 143B-MTX ^SR had a 5,500-fold increase in the MTX IC ₅₀ compared to the parental 143B-P cells. Expression of DHFR was increased 10-fold in 143B-MTX ^SR compared to 143B-P (p<0.01). 143B-MTX ^SR cells had reduced colony-formation capacity on plastic (p=0.032) and in soft agar (p<0.01) compared to 143B-P and reduced tumor growth in orthotopic xenograft mouse models (p<0.001). These results demonstrate that 143B-MTX ^SR had reduced malignancy. 143B-MTX ^SR also showed an increased expression of PI3K (p<0.01), phosphorylated (activated) AKT (p=0.031), phosphorylated mTOR (p=0.043), and c-MYC (p=0.024) compared to 143B-P.
Conclusion: The present study demonstrates that the increased expression of DHFR, PI3K/AKT/mTOR and c-MYC appears to be linked to super MTX resistance and, paradoxically, to reduced malignancy. The present results suggest that DHFR may be a powerful tumor suppressor when highly amplified.
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