β-Catenin is important for cancer stem cell generation and tumorigenic activity in nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is one of the most common malignant tumors with poor prognosis and recurrence in South China. The hard eradication of NPC in clinic is predominantly due to cancer stem cells (CSCs). Increasing evidence revealed that the aberrant activation of Wnt/β-catenin was positively correlated with the produce of CSCs. To further investigate the effect of β-catenin on CSCs and tumorigenesis in NPC, a CNE2 cell line ( pLKO.1-sh-β-catenin-CNE2) with stably suppressed expression of β-catenin was used in this study. The expressions of biomarkers in CSCs including c-myc, Nanog, Oct3/4, Sox2, EpCAM as well as adhesion-related proteins like E-cadherin and vimentin were analyzed by western blot analysis and immunofluorescent staining. The proliferation and migration abilities were investigated by MTT assay and Transwell assay, respectively. Cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. Finally, xenograft was performed to determine the effect of β-catenin on oncogenesis in vivo. Results showed that the expressions of c-myc, Nanog, Oct3/4, Sox2, and EpCAM were all decreased in pLKO.1-sh-β-catenin-CNE2 cells. It was also found that vimentin was downregulated, while E-cadherin was upregulated. Results of MTT and Transwell assays suggested that the proliferation and migration abilities were impaired by silencing of β-catenin, and more cells were arrested in G1 phase when compared with the control. In vivo study indicated that the tumor growth was markedly suppressed in experimental group. Based on current findings, β-catenin may function as an essential protein for the maintenance of migration and proliferation abilities of NPC cells, and a complicated network consisting of c-myc, Nanog, Oct3/4, Sox2, EpCAM, E-cadherin, vimentin, and β-catenin may be involved in the inherent regulation mechanisms.

Cancer stem cell‐like characteristics and telomerase activity of the nasopharyngeal carcinoma radioresistant cell line CNE‐2R

“…40,41 NPCrelated research also indicates that β-catenin plays a crucial role in maintaining the CSC phenotype, while verifying that the Wnt/β-catenin pathway plays a regulatory role in the NPC of CSCs. 42,43 In this study, our Western blotting results suggested that the protein expression levels of β-catenin in CNE-2R cells were dramatically higher than that in CNE-2 cells; these results further verify the CSC-like characteristics of CNE-2R cells.…”

Ti0.8O2Nanosheets Inhibit Lung Cancer Stem Cells by Inducing Production of Superoxide Anion

“…4F). Consequently, the level of b-catenin, a mediator for self-renewal and tumorigenic properties, (Jiang et al, 2016) was downregulated in the nanosheet-treated cells (Fig. 4, B and D).…”

Genetic polymorphisms of Wnt/β-catenin pathway genes are associated with the efficacy and toxicities of radiotherapy in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…For instance, the tumor growth of NPC was markedly attenuated when the expression of CTNNB1 was suppressed, which indicated that β-catenin may play an important oncogenic role in the migration and proliferation of NPC cells [33]. Importantly, genetic variants in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway could be predictors of cancer risk in multiple human malignancies [43–48].…”