상위피인용논문
서강대학교
Gab-Yong Bae 1, So-Jung Choi 2, Ji-Seon Lee 1, Jisuk Jo 4, Jinseon Lee 2, Jhingook Kim 2,3,* and Hyuk-Jin Cha 1,*
1Department of Life Science, Sogang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
2Samsung Biomedical Research Institute, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University, School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
3Department of Thoracic Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University, School of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
4Samsung Genome Institute, Research Institute for Future Medicine, Samsung Medical Center.
*Corresponding author: correspondence to Jhingook Kim or Hyuk-Jin Cha
Abstract
Loss of E-cadherin, a hallmark of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), can significantly affect metastatic dissemination. However, the molecular mechanism of EMT-associated metastatic dissemination by loss of E-cadherin still remains unclear in non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs). In the present study, we show that the knockdown of E-cadherin was sufficient to convert A549 NSCLC cells into mesenchymal type with the concurrent up-regulation of typical EMT inducers such as ZEB1 and TWIST1. Interestingly, the EMT-induced cells by E-cadherin depletion facilitate invasion in a matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2)-dependent manner with aberrant activation of EGFR signaling. We demonstrated that the elevated invasiveness was a result of the activated EGFR-MEK/ERK signaling, which in turn leads to ZEB1 dependent MMP2 induction. These results suggest that the EGFR-MEK/ERK/ZEB1/MMP2 axis is responsible for promoted invasion in EMT-induced NSCLCs. Consistently, ERK activation and loss of E-cadherin were both observed in the disseminating cancer cells at the invasive tumor fronts in NSCLS cancer tissues. Thereby, these data suggest that the EGFR-MEK/ERK signaling would be a promising molecular target to control aberrant MMP2 expression and consequent invasion in the EMT-induced NSCSLs.
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