Stomatin plays a suppressor role in non-small cell lung cancer metastasis

Huaying An; Xiao Ma; Mingyi Liu; Xiaotong Wang; Xundong Wei; Wei Yuan; Jie Ma

doi:10.21147/j.issn.1000-9604.2019.06.09

Stomatin plays a suppressor role in non-small cell lung cancer metastasis

Chin J Cancer Res. 2019 Dec;31(6):930-944. doi: 10.21147/j.issn.1000-9604.2019.06.09.

Authors

Huaying An¹, Xiao Ma¹, Mingyi Liu¹, Xiaotong Wang¹, Xundong Wei², Wei Yuan¹, Jie Ma²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China.
² Center of Biotherapy, Beijing Hospital, National Center of Gerontology; Institute of Geriatric Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing 100730, China.

PMID: 31949395
PMCID: PMC6955161
DOI: 10.21147/j.issn.1000-9604.2019.06.09

Abstract

Objective: Metastasis is one of the key causes of high mortality in lung cancer. Aberrant DNA methylation is a common event in metastatic lung cancer. We aimed to identify new epigenetic regulation of metastasis-associated genes and characterize their effects on lung cancer progression.

Methods: We screened genes associated with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) metastasis by integrating datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database. We obtained epigenetic-regulated candidate genes by analyzing the expression profile of demethylation genes. By overlapping analysis, epigenetically modulated metastasis-associated genes were obtained. Kaplan-Meier plotter (KM plotter) was utilized to assess the overall survival (OS) of stomatin in lung cancer. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was conducted to determine the association between stomatin and metastasis-associated clinical indicators. Both in vitro and in vivo assays were performed to investigate the potential role of stomatin in metastasis. The regulation mechanisms of transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) on stomatin were determined by Sequenom MassARRAY quantitative methylation and western blot assays.

Results: A series of bioinformatic analyses revealed stomatin as the metastasis-associated gene regulated by DNA methylation. The KM plotter analysis showed a positive association between stomatin and the OS of lung cancer. IHC analysis indicated that the decreased stomatin expression is linked with advanced TNM stage. Loss- and gain-of-function experiments displayed that stomatin could inhibit the migration and invasion of NSCLC cells. Furthermore, TGFβ1 repressed stomatin expression during epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). The negative correlation between stomatin and TGFβ1 was also validated in advanced stage III lung tumor samples. The underlying mechanism by which TGFβ1 inhibits stomatin is due in part to DNA methylation.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that stomatin may be a target for epigenetic regulation and can be used to prevent metastatic diseases.

Keywords: DNA methylation; Stomatin; TGFβ1; epithelial-mesenchymal transition; non-small cell lung cancer.