Interactions between TGF-β type I receptor and hypoxia-inducible factor-α mediates a synergistic crosstalk leading to poor prognosis for patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Issue 17 (2nd September 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mallikarjuna, Pramod; T. Sitaram, Raviprakash; Aripaka, Karthik; Ljungberg, Börje; Landström, Marene
• Is Part Of: Cell cycle. Volume 18:Issue 17(2019)
• Page Start: 2141
• Page End: 2156
• Publication Date: 2019-09-02
• Subjects: ALK5 -- clear cell renal cell carcinoma -- HIF-α -- SNAIL1 -- transforming growth factor-β; Cell cycle -- Periodicals; 571.84377
• DOI: 10.1080/15384101.2019.1642069
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1538-4101

Abstract

ABSTRACT: To investigate the significance of expression of HIF-1α, HIF-2α, and SNAIL1 proteins; and TGF-β signaling pathway proteins in ccRCC, their relation with clinicopathological parameters and patient's survival were examined. We also investigated potential crosstalk between HIF-α and TGF-β signaling pathway, including the TGF-β type 1 receptor (ALK5-FL) and the intracellular domain of ALK5 (ALK5-ICD). Tissue samples from 154 ccRCC patients and comparable adjacent kidney cortex samples from 38 patients were analyzed for HIF-1α/2α, TGF-β signaling components, and SNAIL1 proteins by immunoblot. Protein expression of HIF-1α and HIF-2α were significantly higher, while SNAIL1 had similar expression levels in ccRCC compared with the kidney cortex. HIF-2α associated with poor cancer-specific survival, while HIF-1α and SNAIL1 did not associate with survival. Moreover, HIF-2α positively correlated with ALK5-ICD, pSMAD2/3, and PAI-1; HIF-1α positively correlated with pSMAD2/3; SNAIL1 positively correlated with ALK5-FL, ALK5-ICD, pSMAD2/3, PAI-1, and HIF-2α. Intriguingly, in vitro experiments performed under normoxic conditions revealed that ALK5 interacts with HIF-1α and HIF-2α, and promotes their expression and the expression of their target genes GLUT1 and CA9, in a VHL dependent manner. We found that ALK5 induces expression of HIF-1α and HIF-2α, through its kinase activity. Under hypoxic conditions, HIF-α proteins correlated with the activated TGF-β signaling pathway. In conclusion, we reveal that ALK5 plays a pivotal role in synergistic crosstalk between TGF-β signaling and hypoxia pathway, and that the interaction between ALK5 and HIF-α contributes to tumor progression.