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. 2014 Jun 13;15(6):10635-51.
doi: 10.3390/ijms150610635.

Brain metastases from lung cancer show increased expression of DVL1, DVL3 and beta-catenin and down-regulation of E-cadherin

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Brain metastases from lung cancer show increased expression of DVL1, DVL3 and beta-catenin and down-regulation of E-cadherin

Anja Kafka et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

The susceptibility of brain to secondary formation from lung cancer primaries is a well-known phenomenon. In contrast, the molecular basis for invasion and metastasis to the brain is largely unknown. In the present study, 31 brain metastases that originated from primary lung carcinomas were analyzed regarding over expression of Dishevelled-1 (DVL1), Dishevelled-3 (DVL3), E-cadherin (CDH1) and beta-catenin (CTNNB1). Protein expressions and localizations were analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Genetic alterations of E-cadherin were tested by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)/loss of heterozygosity (LOH). Heteroduplex was used to investigate mutations in beta-catenin. DVL1 and DVL3 showed over expression in brain metastasis in 87.1% and 90.3% of samples respectively. Nuclear staining was observed in 54.8% of cases for DVL1 and 53.3% for DVL3. The main effector of the Wnt signaling, beta-catenin, was up-regulated in 56%, and transferred to the nucleus in 36% of metastases. When DVL1 and DVL3 were up-regulated the number of cases with nuclear beta-catenin significantly increased (p=0.0001). Down-regulation of E-cadherin was observed in 80% of samples. Genetic analysis showed 36% of samples with LOH of the CDH1. In comparison to other lung cancer pathologies, the diagnoses adenocarcinoma and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) were significantly associated to CDH1 LOH (p=0.001). Microsatellite instability was detected in one metastasis from adenocarcinoma. Exon 3 of beta-catenin was not targeted. Altered expression of Dishevelled-1, Dishevelled-3, E-cadherin and beta-catenin were present in brain metastases which indicates that Wnt signaling is important and may contribute to better understanding of genetic profile conditioning lung cancer metastasis to the brain.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The distribution of the expression levels of the two proteins in metastases according to the starting point of specific type of the primary lung cancer. (A) Dishevelled-1 (DVL1); and (B) Dishevelled-3 (DVL3).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Brain metastasis samples immunohistochemically stained for the expression of DVL1, DVL3, E-cadherin and beta-catenin proteins. Strong expression of DVL1, (A) in cytoplasm; (B) in cytoplasm and nucleus; Strong expression of DVL3, (C) in cytoplasm; (D) in cytoplasm and nucleus; Nuclear expression of beta-catenin (E); and Loss of expression of E-cadherin protein (F). Original magnification, 400×; scale bar, 50 μm.

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