Purcell R, Childs M, Maibach R, Miles C, Turner C, Zimmermann A, Sullivan M. HGF/c-Met related activation of β-catenin in hepatoblastoma.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL & CLINICAL CANCER RESEARCH : CR 2011;
30:96. [PMID:
21992464 PMCID:
PMC3207961 DOI:
10.1186/1756-9966-30-96]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2011] [Accepted: 10/12/2011] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
Abstract
Background
Activation of beta-catenin is a hallmark of hepatoblastoma (HB) and appears to play a crucial role in its pathogenesis. While aberrant accumulation of the beta-catenin is a common event in HB, mutations or deletions in CTNNB1 (beta-catenin gene) do not always account for the high frequency of protein expression. In this study we have investigated alternative activation of beta-catenin by HGF/c-Met signaling in a large cohort of 98 HB patients enrolled in the SIOPEL-3 clinical trial.
Methods
We performed immunohistochemistry, using antibodies to total beta-catenin and tyrosine654-phosphorylated beta-catenin, which is a good surrogate marker of HGF/c-Met activation. CTNNB1 mutation analysis was also carried out on all samples. We also investigated beta-catenin pathway activation in two liver cancer cell lines, HuH-6 and HuH-7.
Results
Aberrant beta-catenin expression was seen in the cytoplasm and/or nucleus of 87% of tumour samples. Our results also revealed a large subset of HB, 83%, with cytoplasmic expression of tyrosine654-phosphorylated beta-catenin and 30% showing additional nuclear accumulation. Sequence analysis revealed mutations in 15% of our cohort. Statistical analysis showed an association between nuclear expression of c-Met-activated beta-catenin and wild type CTNNB1 (P-value = 0.015). Analysis of total beta-catenin and Y654-beta-catenin in response to HGF activation in the cell lines, mirrors that observed in our HB tumour cohort.
Results
We identified a significant subset of hepatoblastoma patients for whom targeting of the c-Met pathway may be a treatment option and also demonstrate distinct mechanisms of beta-catenin activation in HB.
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