Overexpression of the oncostatin M receptor in cervical squamous cell carcinoma cells is associated with a pro-angiogenic phenotype and increased cell motility and invasiveness.

Oncostatin M receptor (OSMR) shows frequent copy number gain and overexpression in advanced cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). We used cell-based in vitro assays, RNA interference, and integrative gene expression profiling to investigate the functional significance of this observation. CaSki and SW756 were selected as representative cervical SCC cells that overexpressed OSMR, and ME180 and MS751 as cells that did not. The STAT-dependent pro-angiogenic factors VEGF-A and ID1 were rapidly induced by OSM in CaSki/SW756 but not in ME180/MS751. However, rapid induction did occur in MS751 following forced OSMR overexpression, while depleting OSMR in CaSki abrogated VEGF-A expression. Conditioned medium from both CaSki and SW756 stimulated endothelial tube formation in vitro, effects that were inhibited by depleting OSMR in the SCC cells. For both CaSki and SW756, migration in a wound healing assay and invasion through Matrigel were stimulated by OSM and consistently inhibited by OSMR depletion. The phenotype was rescued by transfection with OSMR containing a silent mutation that provided specific siRNA resistance. Overall, there was a positive correlation between OSMR levels and invasiveness. We used gene expression profiling to identify genes induced by OSM in CaSki/SW756 but not in ME180/MS751. The most prominent gene ontology category groups for the differentially expressed genes were cell motility/invasion, angiogenesis, signal transduction, and apoptosis. We also profiled 23 cervical SCC samples, identifying genes that were differentially expressed in cases with OSMR overexpression versus those without. Integration of the datasets identified 15 genes that showed consistent differential expression in association with OSMR levels in vitro and in vivo. We conclude that OSMR overexpression in cervical SCC cells provides increased sensitivity to OSM, which induces pro-malignant changes. OSMR is a potential prognostic and therapeutic target in cervical SCC. The genes that mediate OSM:OSMR effects will be valuable indicators of the effectiveness of antibody blockade in pre-clinical systems.

Functional evidence that Drosha overexpression in cervical squamous cell carcinoma affects cell phenotype and microRNA profiles.

Although gain of chromosome 5p is one of the most frequent DNA copy-number imbalances in cervical squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the genes that drive its selection remain poorly understood. In a previous cross-sectional clinical study, we showed that the microRNA processor Drosha (located on chromosome 5p) demonstrates frequent copy-number gain and overexpression in cervical SCC, associated with altered microRNA profiles. Here, we have conducted gene depletion/overexpression experiments to demonstrate the functional significance of up-regulated Drosha in cervical SCC cells. Drosha depletion by RNA interference (RNAi) produced significant, specific reductions in cell motility/invasiveness in vitro, with a silent RNAi-resistant Drosha mutation providing phenotype rescue. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering following global profiling of 319 microRNAs in 18 cervical SCC cell line specimens generated two groups according to Drosha expression levels. Altering Drosha levels in individual SCC lines changed the group into which the cells clustered, with gene depletion effects being rescued by the RNAi-resistant mutation. Forty-five microRNAs showed significant differential expression between the groups, including four of 14 that were differentially expressed in association with Drosha levels in clinical samples. miR-31 up-regulation in Drosha-overexpressing samples/cell lines was the highest-ranked change (by adjusted p value) in both analyses, an observation validated by northern blotting. These functional data support the role of Drosha as an oncogene in cervical SCC, by affecting expression of cancer-associated microRNAs that have the potential to regulate numerous protein-coding genes.

The two most common histological subtypes of malignant germ cell tumour are distinguished by global microRNA profiles, associated with differential transcription factor expression.

BACKGROUND: We hypothesised that differences in microRNA expression profiles contribute to the contrasting natural history and clinical outcome of the two most common types of malignant germ cell tumour (GCT), yolk sac tumours (YSTs) and germinomas. RESULTS: By direct comparison, using microarray data for paediatric GCT samples and published qRT-PCR data for adult samples, we identified microRNAs significantly up-regulated in YSTs (n = 29 paediatric, 26 adult, 11 overlapping) or germinomas (n = 37 paediatric). By Taqman qRT-PCR we confirmed differential expression of 15 of 16 selected microRNAs and further validated six of these (miR-302b, miR-375, miR-200b, miR-200c, miR-122, miR-205) in an independent sample set. Interestingly, the miR-302 cluster, which is over-expressed in all malignant GCTs, showed further over-expression in YSTs versus germinomas, representing six of the top eight microRNAs over-expressed in paediatric YSTs and seven of the top 11 in adult YSTs. To explain this observation, we used mRNA expression profiles of paediatric and adult malignant GCTs to identify 10 transcription factors (TFs) consistently over-expressed in YSTs versus germinomas, followed by linear regression to confirm associations between TF and miR-302 cluster expression levels. Using the sequence motif analysis environment iMotifs, we identified predicted binding sites for four of the 10 TFs (GATA6, GATA3, TCF7L2 and MAF) in the miR-302 cluster promoter region. Finally, we showed that miR-302 family over-expression in YST is likely to be functionally significant, as mRNAs down-regulated in YSTs were enriched for 3' untranslated region sequences complementary to the common seed of miR-302a~miR-302d. Such mRNAs included mediators of key cancer-associated processes, including tumour suppressor genes, apoptosis regulators and TFs. CONCLUSIONS: Differential microRNA expression is likely to contribute to the relatively aggressive behaviour of YSTs and may enable future improvements in clinical diagnosis and/or treatment.

Malignant germ cell tumors display common microRNA profiles resulting in global changes in expression of messenger RNA targets.

Despite their extensive clinical and pathologic heterogeneity, all malignant germ cell tumors (GCT) are thought to originate from primordial germ cells. However, no common biological abnormalities have been identified to date. We profiled 615 microRNAs (miRNA) in pediatric malignant GCTs, controls, and GCT cell lines (48 samples in total) and re-analyzed available miRNA expression data in adult gonadal malignant GCTs. We applied the bioinformatic algorithm Sylamer to identify miRNAs that are of biological importance by inducing global shifts in mRNA levels. The most significant differentially expressed miRNAs in malignant GCTs were all from the miR-371-373 and miR-302 clusters (adjusted P < 0.00005), which were overexpressed regardless of histologic subtype [yolk sac tumor (YST)/seminoma/embryonal carcinoma (EC)], site (gonadal/extragonadal), or patient age (pediatric/adult). Sylamer revealed that the hexamer GCACTT, complementary to the 2- to 7-nucleotide miRNA seed AAGUGC shared by six members of the miR-371-373 and miR-302 clusters, was the only sequence significantly enriched in the 3'-untranslated region of mRNAs downregulated in pediatric malignant GCTs (as a group), YSTs and ECs, and in adult YSTs (all versus nonmalignant tissue controls; P < 0.05). For the pediatric samples, downregulated genes containing the 3'-untranslated region GCACTT showed significant overrepresentation of Gene Ontology terms related to cancer-associated processes, whereas for downregulated genes lacking GCACTT, Gene Ontology terms generally represented metabolic processes only, with few genes per term (adjusted P < 0.05). We conclude that the miR-371-373 and miR-302 clusters are universally overexpressed in malignant GCTs and coordinately downregulate mRNAs involved in biologically significant pathways.

Characterization of naturally occurring HPV16 integration sites isolated from cervical keratinocytes under noncompetitive conditions.

As the high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) integrants seen in anogenital carcinomas represent the end-point of a clonal selection process, we used the W12 model to study the naturally occurring integration events that exist in HPV16-infected cervical keratinocytes before integrant selection. We performed limiting dilution cloning to identify integrants present in cells that also maintain episomes. Such integrants arise in a natural context and exist in a noncompetitive environment, as they are transcriptionally repressed by episome-derived E2. We found that integration can occur at any time during episome maintenance, providing biological support for epidemiologic observations that persistent HPV infection is a major risk factor in cervical carcinogenesis. Of 24 different integration sites isolated from a single nonclonal population of W12, 12 (50%) occurred within chromosome bands containing a common fragile site (CFS), similar to observations for selected integrants in vivo. This suggests that such regions represent relatively accessible sites for insertion of foreign DNA, rather than conferring a selective advantage when disrupted. Interestingly, however, integrants and CFSs did not accurately colocalize. We further observed that local DNA rearrangements occur frequently and rapidly after the integration event. The majority of integrants were in chromosome bands containing a cancer-associated coding gene or microRNA, indicating that integration occurs commonly in these regions, regardless of selective pressure. The cancer-associated genes were generally a considerable distance from the integration site, and there was no evidence for altered expression of nine strong candidate genes. These latter observations do not support an important role for HPV16 integration in causing insertional mutagenesis.

Improved screening for anal neoplasia by immunocytochemical detection of minichromosome maintenance proteins.

PURPOSE: Early detection of anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) and anal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) by screening will improve clinical outcome. Assessment of anal cytology samples using routine Papanicolaou testing suffers from shortcomings in sensitivity and/or specificity, suggesting that screening tests based on biomarkers may be of value. We tested the suitability in this context of minichromosome maintenance (MCM) proteins, accurate markers of the deregulated cell cycle entry that characterizes malignancy and premalignancy. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We undertook an initial immunohistochemical study of 54 anal tissue samples and validated our findings using an independent prospective cohort study of 235 anal cytology samples from 144 subjects. RESULTS: In the progression from normal anal epithelium through AIN to SCC, there was increasing expression of MCM2 and MCM5, including in the superficial epithelial third, the source of the majority of cells collected by anal swab. The median labeling indices (LI) for MCM2 and MCM5 in the superficial third of AIN2/3 and SCCs combined were 90.2% and 84.0%, respectively. MCM LIs in the superficial layers were significantly greater than LIs for Ki67, an alternative marker of cell cycle entry (P<0.0001). By immunocytochemistry using a mixture of anti-MCM2 and anti-MCM5 antibodies, immunopositive cells were readily identified in anal cytology samples, even at low magnification. MCM testing showed sensitivity for AIN2/3 of 84% (95% confidence interval, 75,93) and for AIN1/viral changes of 76% (68, 84), with overall specificity (for any lesion) of 77% (64, 90). CONCLUSIONS: MCMs are promising biomarkers for improving detection of AIN and SCC in anal cytology samples.

Pediatric malignant germ cell tumors show characteristic transcriptome profiles.

Malignant germ cell tumors (GCT) of childhood are rare and heterogeneous neoplasms thought to arise from primordial germ cells. They vary substantially in their natural history and show important clinical differences from their adult counterparts. To address the biological basis for these observations, we have undertaken a comprehensive analysis of global gene expression patterns in pediatric malignant GCTs and compared these findings with published data on adult testicular GCTs (TGCT). Our study included 27 primary tumors and assessed the principal malignant histologic types of pediatric GCT, yolk sac tumor (YST; n = 18), and seminoma (n = 9). Analysis of Affymetrix U133A GeneChip data was performed using the statistical software environment R, including gene set enrichment analysis, with cross-validation at the RNA and protein level. Unsupervised analysis showed complete separation of YSTs and seminomas by global gene expression profiles and identified a robust set of 657 discriminatory transcripts. There was no segregation of tumors of the same histology arising at different sites or at different ages within the pediatric range. In contrast, there was segregation of pediatric malignant GCTs and adult malignant TGCTs, most notably for the YSTs. The pediatric seminomas were significantly enriched for genes associated with the self-renewing pluripotent phenotype, whereas the pediatric YSTs were significantly enriched for genes associated with a differentiation and proliferation phenotype. We conclude that histologic type is the key discriminator in pediatric malignant GCTs and that the observed clinical differences between malignant GCTs of children and adults are mirrored by significant differences in global gene expression.

Potency of arachidonic acid in polyunsaturated fatty acid-induced death of human monocyte-macrophages: implications for atherosclerosis.

Evidence suggests that oxidation of LDL is involved in the progression of atherosclerosis by inducing apoptosis in macrophages. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are prominent components of LDL and are highly peroxidisable. We therefore tested PUFAs for induction of apoptosis in human monocyte-macrophages in vitro. Arachidonic acid (AA) induced the highest levels of apoptosis followed by docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), despite DHA and EPA being more peroxidisable than AA. alpha-Linolenic acid induced lower levels of apoptosis. Linoleic and oleic acids were innocuous. Results of experiments with AA products and enzyme inhibitors suggest roles for peroxidation, cyclooxygenase and lipoxygenase in AA-induced apoptosis. Our results further suggest activation of PPARgamma by AA and DHA associated with apoptosis induction. These findings may be relevant to potential mechanisms of fatty acid influences on plaques and may suggest strategies for combating atherosclerosis progression.