Diverse Mechanisms of Wnt Activation and Effects of Pathway Inhibition on Proliferation of Human Gastric Carcinoma Cells

Human gastric carcinomas are among the most treatment refractory epithelial malignancies. Increased understanding of the underlying molecular aberrations in such tumors could provide insights leading to improved therapeutic approaches. In this study, we characterized diverse genetic aberrations leading to constitutive Wnt signaling activation in a series of human gastric carcinoma cell lines. Downregulation of TCF signaling by stable transduction of dominant negative TCF-4 (DNTCF4) resulted in inhibition of proliferation in Wnt activated AGS tumor cells. c-Myc downregulation and the associated upregulation of its repression target, p21 observed in these tumor cells, as well as the profound growth inhibition induced by c-Myc shRNA implied their c-Myc addiction. In striking contrast, Wnt activated MKN-28 and MKN-74 tumor cells appeared refractory to DNTCF4 inhibition of proliferation despite comparably decreased c-Myc expression levels. The resistance of these same tumor cells to growth inhibition by c-Myc shRNA established that their refractoriness to DNTCF was due to their independence from c-Myc for proliferation. There was no correlation between this resistance phenotype and the presence or absence of constitutive MAPK and/or AKT pathway activation, commonly observed in gastrointestinal tumors. However, in both DNTCF sensitive and resistant tumor cells with MAPK and/or AKT pathway activation, the ability of small molecule antagonists directed against either pathway to inhibit tumor cell growth was enhanced by Wnt pathway inhibition. These findings support the concept that while certain Wnt activated tumors may escape c-Myc dependence for proliferation, disruption of other oncogenic pathways can unmask cooperative antiproliferative effects for Wnt pathway downregulation.