Ski used to be defined as an oncogene that contributes to the resistance of tumor cells to transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta)-induced growth arrest. As TGF-beta has a dual effect on tumor growth with both tumor-suppressing and -promoting activity depending on the stage of carcinogenesis and the cell type, the precise role of Ski in carcinogenesis remains unclear. In this study, we show that downregulation of Ski through lentivirus-mediated RNA interference decreases tumor growth both in vitro and in vivo, yet promotes cell invasiveness in vitro, and lung metastasis in vivo in the pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990, which contain wild-type Smad4 expression, and the BxPC3 cell line, which is Smad4 deficient. We also show that the downregulation of Ski increases TGF-beta-induced transcriptional activity, which is associated with increased TGF-beta-dependent Smad2/3 phosphorylation, and results in an altered expression profile of TGF-beta-inducible genes involved in metastasis, angiogenesis and cell proliferation and epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Immunohistochemical analysis of specimens from 71 patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma showed a significant association between overexpression of Ski and decreased patient survival time (P = 0.0024). Our results suggest that Ski may act as a tumor proliferation-promoting factor or as a metastatic suppressor in human pancreatic cancer.

Multidrug resistant (MDR) cancer cells overexpressing P-glycoprotein (P-gp) display variations in invasive and metastatic behavior. We aimed to clarify the mechanism(s) underlying this observation and transfected vectors carrying CD147, a glycoprotein enriched on the surface of tumor cells that stimulates the production of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), and specific shCD147 into MCF7 and MCF7/Adr cells, respectively. Using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot, we found that overexpression of CD147 in MCF7 cells up-regulated MDR1, MMP2, and MMP9 on both transcription and expression levels, which promoted tumor cells metastasis and conferred them multidrug resistance to P-gp substrate drugs, as determined by in vitro invasion assay and 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay. On the other hand, silencing of CD147 in MCF7/Adr cells led to the opposite effect. Moreover, Erk1/2 in CD147-overexpressing clones were observed to be highly activate and after treatment with U0126, an Erk1/2-specific inhibitor, the expression of MDR1, MMP2 and MMP9 were decreased significantly. Thus, CD147 may assume a dual role, since it had intrinsic stimulative effects on tumor invasion in vitro as well as increasing resistance to P-gp substrate drugs. M ultidrug resistance (MDR) and tumor metastasis are the two main causes of treatment failure and mortality in cancer patients. These two properties of malignant tumors have been studied extensively and there are evidences suggesting functional linkage between the two phenotypes.(1-3) Up-regulation of CD147 has been reported in many MDR cancers.(4) CD147 (EMMPRIN or extracellular matrix metallo-proteinase inducer) is the major stimulator of MMPs. They congregate on the surfaces of most tumor cells to produce elevated levels of several MMPs.The greatly increased expression or activity of distinct MMPs observed in MDR cancer cells could be attributed to the elevated expression of CD147.(4) Morever, Misra et al. (8) have demonstrated that CD147 is also involved in resistance of cancer cells to some chemotherapeutic agents. Inhibition of CD147 gene expression via RNAi could increase chemosensitivity to paclitaxel in the human ovarian cancer cell line.(9) As we know, more than one mechanism participates in MDR to chemotherapeutic drugs, the detailed mechanisms underlying these observations have not been clarified yet. MDR is often associated with overexpression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp), a transmembrane, adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-dependent transporter encoded by the MDR1 gene. (10,11) Our main purpose in the current research was to explore whether CD147 participated in the regulation of both MDR1 and MMPs. Additional, tyrosine kinases have been confirmed to be required not only for CD147 induction of MMPs, (12)(13)(14)(15) but for mediation of the expression of MDR1 as well.(16) Since tyrosine kinases are integrally involved in MAP kinase (MAPK) signaling pathways, we attempted to further clarify whether MMPs and MDR1 expression...

We conclude that low-level expression of Smad7 in pancreatic cancer is significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, high MMP2 expression, and poor prognosis.

A dynamic model is proposed for shear stress induced adenosine triphosphate (ATP) release from endothelial cells (ECs). The dynamic behavior of the ATP/ADP concentration at the endothelial surface by viscous shear flow is investigated through simulation studies based on the dynamic ATP release model. The numerical results demonstrate that the ATP/ADP concentration against time at endothelium-fluid interface predicted by the dynamic ATP release model is more consistent with the experimental observations than that predicted by previous static ATP release model.

The reason for and consequences of BCL2L10 down-regulation in gastric carcinoma are poorly understood. Our aim was to investigate the function of the protein BCL2L10 in gastric carcinoma. We investigated BCL2L10 expression using quantitative real-time PCR and immunoblotting. The methylation status of the BCL2L10 gene promoter was examined by bisulphite sequencing in fresh gastric normal and carcinoma tissues. We studied apoptosis and proliferation regulation in gastric cancer cell lines using flow cytometry, fluorescence staining, murine xenografting and immunoblotting. Pathway inhibitors were applied to confirm the major pathways involved in apoptosis or proliferation regulation. We observed significant correlations between lower BCL2L10 expression and CpG island hypermethylation of the BCL2L10 gene promoter in gastric carcinoma, apoptosis induced by over-expressed BCL2L10 through mitochondrial pathways, and proliferation accelerated by BCL2L10 siRNA via the PI3K-Akt signalling pathway in gastric cancer cell lines. The pro-apoptotic effect of BCL2L10 and growth promotion by BCL2L10 siRNA in gastric cancer cells suggest that it may be a tumour suppressor.

Background: Multidrug-resistant cancer cells overexpressing P-glycoprotein (P-gp) display variations in invasive and metastatic ability through the upregulation of the extracellular matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inducer (CD147). However, the direct linkage between these two proteins is still unclear. Methods: We used immunoprecipitation, immunofluorescence analysis, migration and invasion assays, drug sensitivity assay and Western blot to measure the physical and functional interaction between P-gp and CD147. Then we transfected vectors carrying ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 (UCH-L1) or UCH-L1 siRNA into MCF7 and MCF7/Adr cells, respectively, and investigated the role of UCH-L1 in the regulation of the expression and degradation of P-gp, CD147 and MMP-1, MMP-2, and MMP-9 by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blot and immunoprecipitation. Results: In this paper, we showed that P-gp and CD147 interacted with each other, and that the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway played an important role in the turnover of them. In addition, we found that inhibition of N-glycosylation increased the ubiquitination and degradation of P-gp and CD147, and affected their function. UCH-L1 not only regulated the expression of P-gp, CD147 and MMP-1, MMP-2, and MMP-9, but also the ubiquitination and degradation of P-gp and CD147 in breast cancer cells. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate a mechanism underlying the linkage between multidrug resistance and tumor metastasis, and suggest for the first time that modulating the ubiquitination of P-gp and CD147 might be a novel method for tumor therapy.

In consideration of the mechanism for shear-stress-induced Ca 2+ influx via ATP(adenosine triphosphate)-gated ion channel P2X4 in vascular endothelial cells, a modified model is proposed to describe the shear-stress-induced Ca 2+ influx. It is affected both by the Ca 2+ gradient across the cell membrane and extracellular ATP concentration on the cell surface. Meanwhile, a new static ATP release model is constructed by using published experimental data. Combining the modified intracellular calcium dynamics model with the new ATP release model, we establish a nonlinear Ca 2+ dynamic system in vascular endothelial cells. The ATP-mediated calcium response in vascular endothelial cells subjected to shear stresses is analyzed by solving the governing equations of the integrated dynamic system. Numerical results show that the shear-stress-induced calcium response predicted by the proposed model is more consistent with the experimental observations than that predicted by existing models.

Loss of BCL2L10 protein expression predicts poor clinical outcome in gastric carcinoma.