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Fluid Shear Stress Induces EMT of Circulating Tumor Cells via JNK Signaling in Favor of Their Survival during Hematogenous Dissemination

Tumor cells metastasize to distal organs mainly through hematogenous dissemination, where they experience considerable levels of fluid shear stress. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in tumor metastasis. However, how fluid shear stress influences the EMT phenotype of circ...

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Autores principales: Xin, Ying, Li, Keming, Yang, Mo, Tan, Youhua
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7663710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33143160
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21218115
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author Xin, Ying
Li, Keming
Yang, Mo
Tan, Youhua
author_facet Xin, Ying
Li, Keming
Yang, Mo
Tan, Youhua
author_sort Xin, Ying
collection PubMed
description Tumor cells metastasize to distal organs mainly through hematogenous dissemination, where they experience considerable levels of fluid shear stress. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in tumor metastasis. However, how fluid shear stress influences the EMT phenotype of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in suspension has not been fully understood. The role of shear-induced EMT in cell survival under blood shear flow remains unclear. This study shows that the majority of breast CTCs underwent apoptosis under shear flow and the surviving cells exhibited mesenchymal phenotype, suggesting that fluid shear stress induces EMT. Mechanistically, fluid shear stress-activated Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling, inhibition/activation of which suppressed/promoted the EMT phenotype. In particular, shear flow facilitated the JNK-dependent transition of epithelial CTCs into the mesenchymal status and maintained the pre-existing mesenchymal cells. Importantly, the induction of EMT suppressed the pro-apoptosis gene p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA) and enhanced the survival of suspended CTCs in fluid shear stress, which was rescued by overexpressing PUMA or silencing JNK signaling, suggesting that shear-induced EMT promotes CTC survival through PUMA downregulation and JNK activation. Further, the expressions of EMT markers and JUN were correlated with poor patient survival. In summary, our findings have demonstrated that fluid shear stress induces EMT in suspended CTCs via JNK signaling that promotes their survival in shear flow. This study thus unveils a new role of blood shear stress in CTC survival and facilitates the development of novel therapeutics against tumor metastasis.
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spelling pubmed-76637102020-11-14 Fluid Shear Stress Induces EMT of Circulating Tumor Cells via JNK Signaling in Favor of Their Survival during Hematogenous Dissemination Xin, Ying Li, Keming Yang, Mo Tan, Youhua Int J Mol Sci Article Tumor cells metastasize to distal organs mainly through hematogenous dissemination, where they experience considerable levels of fluid shear stress. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a critical role in tumor metastasis. However, how fluid shear stress influences the EMT phenotype of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in suspension has not been fully understood. The role of shear-induced EMT in cell survival under blood shear flow remains unclear. This study shows that the majority of breast CTCs underwent apoptosis under shear flow and the surviving cells exhibited mesenchymal phenotype, suggesting that fluid shear stress induces EMT. Mechanistically, fluid shear stress-activated Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) signaling, inhibition/activation of which suppressed/promoted the EMT phenotype. In particular, shear flow facilitated the JNK-dependent transition of epithelial CTCs into the mesenchymal status and maintained the pre-existing mesenchymal cells. Importantly, the induction of EMT suppressed the pro-apoptosis gene p53 upregulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA) and enhanced the survival of suspended CTCs in fluid shear stress, which was rescued by overexpressing PUMA or silencing JNK signaling, suggesting that shear-induced EMT promotes CTC survival through PUMA downregulation and JNK activation. Further, the expressions of EMT markers and JUN were correlated with poor patient survival. In summary, our findings have demonstrated that fluid shear stress induces EMT in suspended CTCs via JNK signaling that promotes their survival in shear flow. This study thus unveils a new role of blood shear stress in CTC survival and facilitates the development of novel therapeutics against tumor metastasis. MDPI 2020-10-30 /pmc/articles/PMC7663710/ /pubmed/33143160 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21218115 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Xin, Ying
Li, Keming
Yang, Mo
Tan, Youhua
Fluid Shear Stress Induces EMT of Circulating Tumor Cells via JNK Signaling in Favor of Their Survival during Hematogenous Dissemination
title Fluid Shear Stress Induces EMT of Circulating Tumor Cells via JNK Signaling in Favor of Their Survival during Hematogenous Dissemination
title_full Fluid Shear Stress Induces EMT of Circulating Tumor Cells via JNK Signaling in Favor of Their Survival during Hematogenous Dissemination
title_fullStr Fluid Shear Stress Induces EMT of Circulating Tumor Cells via JNK Signaling in Favor of Their Survival during Hematogenous Dissemination
title_full_unstemmed Fluid Shear Stress Induces EMT of Circulating Tumor Cells via JNK Signaling in Favor of Their Survival during Hematogenous Dissemination
title_short Fluid Shear Stress Induces EMT of Circulating Tumor Cells via JNK Signaling in Favor of Their Survival during Hematogenous Dissemination
title_sort fluid shear stress induces emt of circulating tumor cells via jnk signaling in favor of their survival during hematogenous dissemination
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7663710/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33143160
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms21218115
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