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ABSTRACT: We recently demonstrated that hypoxia, a key feature of IBD, increases enterochromaffin (EC) cell 5-HT secretion, which is also physiologically regulated by the ADORA2B mechanoreceptor. Since hypoxia is associated with increased extracellular adenosine, we wanted to examine whether this nucleotide amplifies HIF-1α-mediated 5-HT secretion.
The effects of hypoxia were studied on IBD mucosa, isolated IBD-EC cells, isolated normal EC cells and the EC cell tumor derived cell line KRJ-1. Hypoxia (0.5% O2) was compared to NECA (adenosine agonist), MRS1754 (ADORA2B receptor antagonist) and SCH442146 (ADORA2A antagonist) on HIF signaling and 5-HT secretion. Antisense approaches were used to mechanistically evaluate EC cells in vitro. PCR and western blot were used to analyze transcript and protein levels of HIF-1α signaling and neuroendocrine cell function. An animal model of colitis was evaluated to confirm hypoxia:adenosine signaling in vivo.
HIF-1α is upregulated in IBD mucosa and IBD-EC cells, the majority (∼90%) of which express an activated phenotype in situ. Hypoxia stimulated 5-HT release maximally at 30 mins, an effect amplified by NECA and selectively inhibited by MRS1754, through phosphorylation of TPH-1 and activation of VMAT-1. Transient transfection with Renilla luciferase under hypoxia transcriptional response element (HRE) control identified that ADORA2B activated HIF-1α signaling under hypoxic conditions. Additional signaling pathways associated with hypoxia:adenosine included MAP kinase and CREB. Antisense approaches mechanistically confirmed that ADORA2B signaling was linked to these pathways and 5-HT release under hypoxic conditions. Hypoxia:adenosine activation which could be reversed by 5'-ASA treatment was confirmed in a TNBS-model.
Hypoxia induced 5-HT synthesis and secretion is amplified by ADORA2B signaling via MAPK/CREB and TPH-1 activation. Targeting ADORA2s may decrease EC cell 5-HT production and secretion in IBD.
PLoS ONE 01/2013; 8(4):e62607. · 4.09 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Accurate neuroendocrine neoplasia (NEN) staging is vital for determining prognosis and therapeutic strategy. The great majority of NENs express chromogranin A (CgA) which can be detected at a protein or transcript level. The current standards for lymph node metastasis detection are histological examination after Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and CgA immunohistochemical (IHC) staining. We hypothesized that detection of CgA mRNA transcripts would be a more sensitive method of detecting these metastases.
We compared these traditional methods with PCR for CgA mRNA extracted from formalin fixed paraffin embedded slides of lymph nodes (n = 196) from small intestinal NENs, other gastrointestinal cancers and benign gastrointestinal disease. CgA PCR detected significantly more NEN lymph nodes (75%) than H&E (53%) or CgA IHC (57%) (p = 0.02). PCR detected CgA mRNA in 50% (14 of the 28) of SI-NEN lymph nodes previously considered negative. The false positive rate for detection of CgA mRNA was 19% in non-neuroendocrine cancers, and appeared to be due to occult neuroendocrine differentiation or contamination by normal epithelium during histological processing.
Molecular pathological analysis demonstrates the limitations of observer-dependent histopathology. CgA PCR analysis detected the presence of CgA transcripts in lymph nodes without histological evidence of tumor metastasis. Molecular node positivity (stage molN1) of SI-NEN lymph nodes could confer greater staging accuracy and facilitate early and accurate therapeutic intervention. This technique warrants investigation using clinically annotated tumor samples with follow-up data.
BMC Research Notes 06/2012; 5:318.
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ABSTRACT: Although gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (GEP-NENs) exhibit widely divergent behavior, limited biologic information (apart from Ki-67) is available to characterize malignancy. Therefore, the identification of alternative biomarkers is a key unmet need. Given the role of internexin alpha (INA) in neuronal development, the authors assessed its function in neuroendocrine cell systems and the clinical implications of its expression as a GEP-NEN biomarker.
Functional assays were undertaken to investigate the mechanistic role of INA in the pancreatic BON cell line. Expression levels of INA were investigated in 50 pancreatic NENs (43 primaries, 7 metastases), 43 small intestinal NENs (25 primaries, 18 metastases), normal pancreas (n = 10), small intestinal mucosa (n = 16), normal enterochromaffin (EC) cells (n = 9), mouse xenografts (n = 4) and NEN cell lines (n = 6) using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and immunostaining analyses.
In BON cells, decreased levels of INA messenger RNA and protein were associated with the inhibition of both proliferation and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling. INA was not expressed in normal neuroendocrine cells but was overexpressed (from 2-fold to 42-fold) in NEN cell lines and murine xenografts. In pancreatic NENs, INA was overexpressed compared with pancreatic adenocarcinomas and normal pancreas (27-fold [P = .0001], and 9-fold [P = .02], respectively). INA transcripts were correlated positively with Ki-67 (correlation coefficient [r] = 0.5; P < .0001) and chromogranin A (r = 0.59; P < .0001). INA distinguished between primary tumors and metastases (P = .02), and its expression was correlated with tumor size, infiltration, and grade (P < .05).
INA is a novel NEN biomarker, and its expression was associated with MAPK signaling and proliferation. In clinical samples, elevated INA was correlated with Ki-67 and identified malignancy. INA may provide additional biologic information relevant to delineation of both pancreatic NEN tumor phenotypes and clinical behavior.
Cancer 10/2011; 118(10):2763-75. · 4.77 Impact Factor
