Dedifferentiation process driven by radiotherapy-induced HMGB1/TLR2/YAP/HIF-1α signaling enhances pancreatic cancer stemness

Differentiated cancer cells reacquiring stem cell traits following radiotherapy may enrich cancer stem cells and accelerate tumor recurrence and metastasis. We are interested in the mechanistic role of dying cells-derived HMGB1 in CD133(−) pancreatic cancer cells dedifferentiation following radiotherapy. We firstly confirmed that X-ray irradiation induced differentiation of CD133(−) pancreatic cancer cells, from either sorted from patient samples or established cell lines, into cancer stem-like cells (iCSCs). Using an in vitro coculture model, X-ray irradiation induced dying cells to release HMGB1, which further promoted CD133(−) pancreatic cancer cells regaining stem cell traits, such as higher sphere forming ability and expressed higher level of stemness-related genes and proteins. Inhibiting the expression and activity of HMGB1 attenuated the dedifferentiation stimulating effect of irradiated, dying cells on C133(−) pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in PDX models. Mechanistically, HMGB1 binding with TLR2 receptor functions in a paracrine manner to affect CD133(−) pancreatic cancer cells dedifferentiation via activating Hippo-YAP pathway and HIF-1α expression in oxygen independent manner in vitro and in vivo. We conclude that X-ray irradiation induces CD133(−) pancreatic cancer cell dedifferentiation into a CSC phenotype, and inhibiting HMGB1 may be a strategy to prevent CSC enrichment and further pancreatic carcinoma relapse.