Effect of progranulin (PGRN) on the proliferation and senescence of cervical cancer cells

Serum progranulin as a potential biomarker for frailty in Chinese older adults

BACKGROUND

Frailty can increase adverse health outcomes in older adults. Progranulin is a secreted glycoprotein involved in regulating various biological processes. Different perspectives exist on the relationship between progranulin and frailty.

AIMS

We aimed to evaluate the association of progranulin with frailty in older Chinese adults.

METHODS

We included 265 older in-patients who were divided into the robust (n = 31), pre-frail (n = 116) and frail (n = 118) groups according to the FRAIL scale. Serum IL-6, CXCL-10, progranulin, and CRP levels were assayed. Spearman's correlation and logistic regression models were used to analyze the association of serum biomarkers with frailty, and ROC was used to evaluate the diagnostic progranulin value for frailty.

RESULTS

The frail group was older and had lower BMI, higher prevalence of coronary heart disease, worse grip strength and walking speed, and higher IL-6, CXCL-10, progranulin, and CRP serum levels than the robust and pre-frail groups. Progranulin levels were negatively correlated with grip strength (r = - 0.152, p = 0.016) and positively correlated with IL-6 (r = 0.207, p = 0.001) and CXCL-10 (r = 0.160, p = 0.009) after adjusting for age and sex. Furthermore, progranulin remained associated with frailty after adjusting for age, sex, BMI, smoking, chronic diseases, and pro-inflammatory cytokines (OR = 1.003, 95% CI 1.001-1.006, p = 0.022). The AUC of serum progranulin levels for diagnostic frailty was 0.927 (95% CI 0.896-0.958, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

High serum progranulin levels were observed in frail older adults and were associated with worse physical function and increased chronic inflammation. Progranulin may be a potential biomarker for frailty.

Progranulin Regulates Inflammation and Tumor

Progranulin (PGRN) mediates cell cycle progression and cell motility as a pleiotropic growth factor and acts as a universal regulator of cell growth, migration and transformation, cell cycle, wound healing, tumorigenesis, and cytotoxic drug resistance as a secreted glycoprotein. PGRN overexpression can induce the secretion of many inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-8, -6,-10, TNF-α. At the same time, this protein can promote tumor proliferation and the occurrence and development of many related diseases such as gastric cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, renal injury, neurodegeneration, neuroinflammatory, human atherosclerotic plaque, hepatocarcinoma, acute kidney injury, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. In short, PGRN plays a very critical role in injury repair and tumorigenesis, it provides a new direction for succeeding research and serves as a target for clinical diagnosis and treatment, thus warranting further investigation. Here, we discuss the potential therapeutic utility and the effect of PGRN on the relationship between inflammation and cancer.

Granulin epithelin precursor promotes colorectal carcinogenesis by activating MARK/ERK pathway

Background

Granulin epithelin precursor (GEP) is reported to function as a growth factor stimulating proliferation and migration, and conferring chemoresistance in many cancer types. However, the expression and functional roles of GEP in colorectal cancer (CRC) remain elusive. The aim of this study was thus to investigate the clinical significance of GEP in CRC and reveal the molecular mechanism of GEP in CRC initiation and progression.

Methods

The mRNA expression of GEP in CRC cell lines were detected by qRT-PCR. The GEP protein expression was validated by immunohistochemistry in tissue microarray (TMA) including 190 CRC patient samples. The clinicopathological correlation analysis were achieved by GEP expression on TMA. Functional roles of GEP were determined by MTT proliferation, monolayer colony formation, cell invasion and migration and in vivo studies through siRNA/shRNA mediated knockdown assays. The cancer signaling pathway identification was acquired by flow cytometry, western blot and luciferase activity assays.

Results

The mRNA expression of GEP in CRC was significantly higher than it in normal colon tissues. GEP protein was predominantly localized in the cytoplasm and most of the CRC cases demonstrated abundant GEP protein compared with non-tumorous tissues. GEP overexpression was associated with non-rectal location, advanced AJCC stage, regional lymph node and distant metastasis. By Kaplan–Meier survival analysis, GEP abundance served as a prognostic marker for worse survival in CRC patients. GEP knockdown exhibited anti-cancer effect such as inhibiting cell proliferation, monolayer colony formation, cell invasion and migration in DLD-1 and HCT 116 cells and decelerating xenograft formation in nude mice. siGEP also induced G1 cell cycle arrest and apoptosis. Luciferase activity assays further demonstrated GEP activation was involved in MAPK/ERK signaling pathway.

Conclusion

In summary, we compressively delineate the oncogenic role of GEP in colorectal tumorigenesis by activating MAPK/ERK signaling pathway. GEP might serve as a useful prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target for CRC.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12967-018-1530-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Progranulin and its biological effects in cancer

Cancer cells have defects in regulatory mechanisms that usually control cell proliferation and homeostasis. Different cancer cells share crucial alterations in cell physiology, which lead to malignant growth. Tumorigenesis or tumor growth requires a series of events that include constant cell proliferation, promotion of metastasis and invasion, stimulation of angiogenesis, evasion of tumor suppressor factors, and avoidance of cell death pathways. All these events in tumor progression may be regulated by growth factors produced by normal or malignant cells. The growth factor progranulin has significant biological effects in different types of cancer. This protein is a regulator of tumorigenesis because it stimulates cell proliferation, migration, invasion, angiogenesis, malignant transformation, resistance to anticancer drugs, and immune evasion. This review focuses on the biological effects of progranulin in several cancer models and provides evidence that this growth factor should be considered as a potential biomarker and target in cancer treatment.

Mechanisms of Progranulin Action and Regulation in Genitourinary Cancers

The growth factor progranulin has emerged in recent years as a critical regulator of transformation in several cancer models, including breast cancer, glioblastomas, leukemias, and hepatocellular carcinomas. Several laboratories, including ours, have also demonstrated an important role of progranulin in several genitourinary cancers, including ovarian, endometrial, cervical, prostate, and bladder tumors, where progranulin acts as an autocrine growth factor thereby modulating motility and invasion of transformed cells. In this review, we will focus on the mechanisms of action and regulation of progranulin signaling in genitourinary cancers with a special emphasis on prostate and bladder tumors.