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Gayer FA, Fichtner A, Legler TJ, Reichardt HM. A Coculture Model Mimicking the Tumor Microenvironment Unveils Mutual Interactions between Immune Cell Subtypes and the Human Seminoma Cell Line TCam-2. Cells 2022; 11:cells11050885. [PMID: 35269507 PMCID: PMC8909655 DOI: 10.3390/cells11050885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2022] [Revised: 02/24/2022] [Accepted: 03/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Testicular germ cell cancer (TGCC) is the most common type of cancer in young men. Seminomas account for around half of them and are characterized by a pronounced infiltration of immune cells. So far, the impact of the tumor microenvironment (TME) on disease progression, especially the interaction of individual immune cell subtypes with the tumor cells, remains unclear. To address this question, we used an in vitro TME model involving the seminoma-derived cell line Tcam-2 and immune cell subsets purified from human peripheral blood. T cells and monocytes were strongly activated when individually cocultured with Tcam-2 cells as revealed by increased expression of activation markers and pro-inflammatory cytokines both on the mRNA and protein level. Importantly, the interaction between tumor and immune cells was mutual. Gene expression of pluripotency markers as well as markers of proliferation and cell cycle activity were upregulated in Tcam-2 cells in cocultures with T cells, whereas gene expression of SOX17, a marker for seminomas, was unaltered. Interestingly, the impact of monocytes on gene expression of Tcam-2 cells was less pronounced, indicating that the effects of individual immune cell subsets on tumor cells in the TME are highly specific. Collectively, our data indicate that seminoma cells induce immune cell activation and thereby generate a strong pro-inflammatory milieu, whereas T cells conversely increase the proliferation, metastatic potential, and stemness of tumor cells. Although the employed model does not fully mimic the physiological situation found in TGCC in vivo, it provides new insights potentially explaining the connection between inflammatory infiltrates in seminomas and their tendency to burn out and metastasize.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabian A. Gayer
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Immunology, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany;
- Clinic of Urology, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany
| | - Alexander Fichtner
- Institute of Pathology, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany;
| | - Tobias J. Legler
- Department of Transfusion Medicine, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37075 Göttingen, Germany;
| | - Holger M. Reichardt
- Institute for Cellular and Molecular Immunology, University Medical Center Göttingen, 37073 Göttingen, Germany;
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +49-551-39-63365
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Kuchar M, Neuber C, Belter B, Bergmann R, Lenk J, Wodtke R, Kniess T, Steinbach J, Pietzsch J, Löser R. Evaluation of Fluorine-18-Labeled α1(I)-N-Telopeptide Analogs as Substrate-Based Radiotracers for PET Imaging of Melanoma-Associated Lysyl Oxidase. Front Chem 2018; 6:121. [PMID: 29755969 PMCID: PMC5932954 DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2018.00121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/12/2018] [Accepted: 03/30/2018] [Indexed: 12/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Accumulating evidence suggests an unequivocal role of lysyl oxidases as key players of tumor progression and metastasis, which renders this enzyme family highly attractive for targeted non-invasive functional imaging of tumors. Considering their function in matrix remodeling, malignant melanoma appears as particularly interesting neoplasia in this respect. For the development of radiotracers that enable PET imaging of the melanoma-associated lysyl oxidase activity, substrates derived from the type I collagen α1 N-telopeptide were labeled with fluorine-18 using N-succinimidyl 4-[18F]fluorobenzoate ([18F]SFB) as prosthetic reagent. With regards to potential crosslinking to tumor-associated collagen in vivo, their interaction with triple-helical type I collagen was studied by SPR. A mouse model of human melanoma was established on the basis of the A375 cell line, for which the expression of the oncologically relevant lysyl oxidase isoforms LOX and LOXL2 was demonstrated in Western blot and immunohistochemical experiments. The radiopharmacological profiles of the peptidic radiotracers were evaluated in normal rats and A375 melanoma-bearing mice by ex vivo metabolite analysis, whole-body biodistribution studies and dynamic PET imaging. Out of three 18F-labeled telopeptide analogs, the one with the most favorable substrate properties has shown favorable tumor uptake and tumor-to-muscle ratio. Lysyl oxidase-mediated tumor uptake was proven by pharmacological inhibition using β-aminopropionitrile and by employing negative-control analogs of impeded or abolished targeting capability. The latter were obtained by substituting the lysine residue by ornithine and norleucine, respectively. Comparing the tumor uptake of the lysine-containing peptide with that of the non-functional analogs indicate the feasibility of lysyl oxidase imaging in melanoma using substrate-based radiotracers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuela Kuchar
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany.,Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, School of Science, Technische Unversität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Christin Neuber
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany
| | - Birgit Belter
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany
| | - Ralf Bergmann
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany
| | - Jens Lenk
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany.,Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, School of Science, Technische Unversität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Robert Wodtke
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany.,Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, School of Science, Technische Unversität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Torsten Kniess
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany
| | - Jörg Steinbach
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany.,Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, School of Science, Technische Unversität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Jens Pietzsch
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany.,Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, School of Science, Technische Unversität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Reik Löser
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf, Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, Dresden, Germany.,Faculty of Chemistry and Food Chemistry, School of Science, Technische Unversität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
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von Felbert V, Córdoba F, Weissenberger J, Vallan C, Kato M, Nakashima I, Braathen LR, Weis J. Interleukin-6 gene ablation in a transgenic mouse model of malignant skin melanoma. THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PATHOLOGY 2005; 166:831-41. [PMID: 15743795 PMCID: PMC1602365 DOI: 10.1016/s0002-9440(10)62304-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
Interleukin (IL)-6 is a pleiotropic cytokine that has been shown to inhibit the growth of early stage and to promote the proliferation of advanced stage melanoma cells in vitro. In patients with metastasizing melanomas, highly increased IL-6 blood levels correlate with a poor response to chemotherapy and a worse overall prognosis, suggesting that IL-6 promotes melanoma progression in vivo. Here, we analyzed the role of IL-6 in melanoma development and progression in a transgenic mouse model. We bred IL-6-deficient mice with MT-ret transgenic animals predisposed for melanomas. While MT-ret transgenic animals develop severe melanosis of the skin and subcutis and subsequent melanomas at an incidence of 80% during their first year of life, MT-ret mice devoid of IL-6 developed preneoplastic melanosis and consecutive melanomas significantly less frequently (47%; P < 0.05). Moreover, the tumors were significantly smaller in the groups of MT-ret mice lacking one (P < 0.05) or both (P < 0.01) copies of the IL-6 gene. Immunoblot analysis revealed that ret transgene expression was not reduced in the skin of mice lacking IL-6, indicating that the observed decrease of melanoma incidence and of tumor sizes was not because of a down-regulation of transgene expression. Taken together, these results indicate that IL-6 enhances both the development of melanoma precursor lesions and the subsequent growth of the resulting tumors in the MT-ret model of melanoma development.
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Lesinski GB, Kondadasula SV, Crespin T, Shen L, Kendra K, Walker M, Carson WE. Multiparametric flow cytometric analysis of inter-patient variation in STAT1 phosphorylation following interferon Alfa immunotherapy. J Natl Cancer Inst 2004; 96:1331-42. [PMID: 15339971 DOI: 10.1093/jnci/djh252] [Citation(s) in RCA: 63] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Regulation of gene expression by signal transducer and activator of transcription 1 (STAT1) within host tissues mediates the antitumor effects of interferon alfa (IFN alpha). We used a novel flow cytometric assay to examine phosphorylation-mediated activation of STAT1 within immune effector cell subsets following in vitro or in vivo IFN alpha treatments. METHODS Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) isolated from healthy donors (n = 17) or melanoma patients (n = 19) were treated in vitro with interferon alfa-2b (IFN alpha-2b) or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and subjected to multiparametric flow cytometry to measure the levels of phosphorylated STAT1 (P-STAT1) within immune cell subsets. We similarly analyzed PBMCs isolated from melanoma patients before and 1 hour after immunotherapy with IFN alpha-2b. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS P-STAT1 levels in all major immune cell subsets increased within 15 minutes of in vitro IFN alpha-2b treatment of PBMCs; the increase was most pronounced in T lymphocytes and monocytes. Relatively low doses of IFN alpha-2b (i.e., 10(2)-10(3) IU/mL) induced maximal STAT1 activation in vitro. Compared with melanoma patients, healthy donors had higher basal levels of P-STAT1 (specific fluorescence [Fsp]; i.e., Fsp(PBS), the level of P-STAT1 in PBS-treated cells) in total PBMCs, natural killer (NK) cells, and T cells (mean Fsp(PBS) in total PBMCs: 5.5 in healthy donors versus 1.6 in patients, difference = 3.9, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.4 to 6.5, P =.004; mean Fsp(PBS) in NK cells: 4.6 in healthy donors versus 0.9 in patients, difference = 3.7, 95% CI = 1.7 to 5.7, P =.001; mean Fsp(PBS) in T cells: 6.8 in healthy donors versus 0.9 in patients, difference = 5.9, 95% CI = 2.5 to 9.3, P =.002). P-STAT1 was detected in the NK and T cells of two patients who received IFN alpha-2b immunotherapy (20 MU/m2 [MU = million units], administered by intravenous injection). P-STAT1 levels in the PBMCs of a patient treated sequentially with 5 MU/m2 and 10 MU/m2 IFN alpha-2b (administered by subcutaneous injection) also increased in response to treatments with IFN alpha-2b but did not increase further with the increased dosage of IFN alpha-2b. CONCLUSION This flow cytometry method can be used to monitor STAT1 activation within subsets of immune cells from patients undergoing IFN alpha immunotherapy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gregory B Lesinski
- Department of Human Cancer Genetics, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
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Deichmann M, Kahle B, Moser K, Wacker J, Wüst K. Diagnosing melanoma patients entering American Joint Committee on Cancer stage IV, C-reactive protein in serum is superior to lactate dehydrogenase. Br J Cancer 2004; 91:699-702. [PMID: 15280926 PMCID: PMC2364774 DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6602043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 54] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in serum has recently been introduced into the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) staging system for cutaneous melanoma because of its prognostic value. We hypothesised LDH to be of value in discriminating melanoma patients entering AJCC stage IV from patients staying in AJCC stages I, II or III. Lactate dehydrogenase was compared to the acute phase protein C-reactive protein (CRP), which we observed to reflect the course of melanoma metastasis in a previous report. In this prospective study, we measured LDH and CRP in the serum of 91 consecutive melanoma patients progressing into AJCC stage IV in comparison to 125 patients staying in AJCC stages I, II or III. Comparing distributions of the parameters by median values and quartiles by Mann-Whitney test, LDH was not significantly elevated in patients entering AJCC stage IV melanoma (P=0.785), whereas CRP was (P<0.001). Analysing the sensitivity and the specificity jointly by the areas under the receiver operating characteristics curves (ROC-AUC), LDH did not discriminate between the defined groups of patients (AUC=0.491; 95% confidence interval, 0.410, 0.581), whereas CRP did (AUC=0.933; 95% confidence interval, 0.900, 0.966; P<0.001). Upon logistic regression analysis to calculate the ROC-AUC values upon the predictive probabilities, LDH provided no additional information to CRP. Choosing a cutoff point of 3.0 mg l(-1), CRP yielded a sensitivity of 0.769 together with a specificity of 0.904 in diagnosing AJCC stage IV entry. Altogether, for first diagnosing AJCC stage IV melanoma, CRP is the superior serum marker when compared to the conventional LDH.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Deichmann
- Department of Dermatology, Heidelberg University Clinics, Vossstrasse 2, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.
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PI3K Blockade by Ad-PTEN Inhibits Invasion and Induces Apoptosis in Radial Growth Phase and Metastatic Melanoma Cells. Mol Med 2002. [DOI: 10.1007/bf03402025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022] Open
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Kurnick JT, Ramirez-Montagut T, Boyle LA, Andrews DM, Pandolfi F, Durda PJ, Butera D, Dunn IS, Benson EM, Gobin SJ, van den Elsen PJ. A novel autocrine pathway of tumor escape from immune recognition: melanoma cell lines produce a soluble protein that diminishes expression of the gene encoding the melanocyte lineage melan-A/MART-1 antigen through down-modulation of its promoter. JOURNAL OF IMMUNOLOGY (BALTIMORE, MD. : 1950) 2001; 167:1204-11. [PMID: 11466335 DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.167.3.1204] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
We have observed that malignant melanoma cells produce a soluble protein factor(s), which down-regulates melanocyte lineage Melan-A/MART-1 Ag expression by melanoma cells with concomitant loss of recognition by Melan-A/MART-1-specific T cells. This down-modulation of Melan-A/MART-1 expression, which we refer to as "Ag silencing," is mediated via its minimal promoter, whereas the promoter for the restricting Ag-presenting HLA-A2 molecule is not affected. Significantly, this Ag silencing is reversible, as removal of factor-containing supernatants from Melan-A/MART-1-expressing cells results in up-regulation of the promoter for the gene encoding this Ag, and renewed expression of the protein. We have evaluated over 20 known factors, none of which accounts for the Ag-silencing activity of the melanoma cell culture supernatants. The existence of this autocrine pathway provides an additional novel explanation for melanoma tumor progression in vivo in the presence of CTL specific for this melanocyte lineage Ag. These observations may have important implications for Melan-A/MART-1-specific CTL-mediated immunotherapy of melanoma tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- J T Kurnick
- Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
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Deichmann M, Thome M, Bock M, Jäckel A, Waldmann V, Näher H. The human herpesvirus-type 8 is not involved in malignant melanoma. Br J Cancer 1999; 80:67-9. [PMID: 10389979 PMCID: PMC2363025 DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6690322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Malignant melanomas were supposed to harbour the human herpesvirus-type 8 (HHV-8) genome, as melanoma cells were reported to express interleukin-6 and a homologue of interleukin-6 was found in the HHV-8 genome. We therefore investigated 33 primary malignant melanomas by polymerase chain reaction, but could not find this tumorigenic gamma-herpesvirus in any tumour.
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