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Cancer‐associated fibroblasts secrete hypoxia‐induced serglycin to promote head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumor cell growth in vitro and in vivo by activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway

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Abstract

Background

The tumor microenvironment (TME) is known to play a prominent role in the pathology of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been reported to regulate tumor progression, and serglycin (SRGN), one of the paracrine cytokines of CAFs, has been reported to play an important role in various signaling pathways. Hypoxia is a distinct feature of the HNSCC TME. Here, we investigated the mechanism underlying CAF-secreted SRGN leading to HNSCC progression under hypoxia.

Methods

Immunohistochemical staining was used to detect SRGN expression in clinical HNSCC samples, after which its relation with patient survival was assessed. CAFs were isolated and SRGN expression and secretion by CAFs under normoxia and hypoxia were confirmed using qRT-PCR and ELISA assays, respectively. HNSCC sphere-forming abilities, stemness-related gene expression, and chemoresistance were assessed with or without SRGN treatment. A Wnt/β-catenin pathway inhibitor (PNU-75,654) was used to block its activation, after which nuclear translocation of β-catenin in the presence of SRGN with or without PNU-75,654 was evaluated. shRNAs were used to stably knock down SRGN expression in CAFs. HNSCC tumor cells with or without (SRGN silenced) CAFs were inoculated submucosally in nude mice after which tumor weights and sizes were determined to assess the effects of CAFs and SRGN on tumor growth.

Results

We found that SRGN was expressed in both HNSCC tumor and stroma cells, and that high SRGN expression in the stroma cells, but not in the tumor cells, was significantly related to a poor patient survival. After the extraction of CAFs and normal fibroblasts (NFs) from paired tumor samples and adjacent normal tissues, respectively, we found that the expression of CAF-specific genes, including fibroblast activation protein (FAP) and alpha-smooth muscle actin (α-SMA), was clearly upregulated compared to the expression in NFs. The hypoxia marker HIF-1α was found to be expressed in tumor stroma cells. Hypoxyprobe immunofluorescence staining confirmed stromal hypoxia in an orthotopic tongue cancer mouse model. Using qRT-PCR and ELISA we found that a hypoxic TME upregulated SRGN expression and secretion by CAFs. SRGN markedly enhanced the sphere-forming ability, stemness-related gene expression and chemoresistance of HNSCC tumor cells. SRGN activated the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and promoted β-catenin nuclear translocation. An in vivo study confirmed that CAFs can accelerate HNSCC tumor growth, and that this effect can be counteracted by SRGN silencing.

Conclusions

Our data indicate that a hypoxic tumor stroma can lead to upregulation of SRGN expression. SRGN secreted by CAFs can promote β-catenin nuclear translocation to activate downstream signaling pathways, leading to enhanced HNSCC cell stemness, chemoresistance and accelerated tumor growth.

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Data availability

The datasets used and analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Abbreviations

TME:

tumor microenvironment

HNSCC:

head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

CAF:

cancer-associated fibroblast

NF:

normal fibroblast

SRGN:

serglycin

FAP:

fibroblast activation protein

α-SMA:

alpha-smooth muscle actin

HIF-1α:

hypoxia inducible factor 1 alpha

ECM:

extracellular matrix

TGF-β:

transforming growth factor beta

EMT/EndMT:

epithelial/endothelial-mesenchymal transition

CD44:

cluster of differentiation 44

NPC:

nasopharyngeal carcinoma

TCGA:

the Cancer Genome Atlas

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Jiangsu provincial key research and development plan [BE2017741], the Jiangsu provincial natural science foundation [BK20180136, BK20180138], the Nanjing Cancer Clinical Medical Center, the Project of Invigorating Health Care through Science, the Technology and Education Jiangsu Provincial Medical Youth Talent program [QNRC2016121] and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [021414380442].

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Author notes

  1. Junqi Xie and Xiaofeng Qi contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, No 30 Zhongyang Road, Nanjing, 210008, China

    Junqi Xie, Yufeng Wang, Xiteng Yin, Wenguang Xu, Shengwei Han & Wei Han

  2. Central Laboratory of Stomatology, Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University, No 22 Hankou Road, Nanjing, 210093, China

    Junqi Xie, Yufeng Wang, Xiteng Yin, Wenguang Xu, Shengwei Han, Yu Cai & Wei Han

  3. Center of Stomatology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, No 1055 Sanxiang Road, Soochow, 215004, China

    Xiaofeng Qi

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Contributions

WH and JQX conceived and designed the study. JQX and QXF designed and conducted the majority of the experiments, and interpreted and analyzed the data. WYF performed some of the experiments and wrote the manuscript. XTY, SWH and YC performed some of the experiments and analyzed the data. WGX carried out the bio-informatics analysis. YFW and XFQ assisted in writing the manuscript. WH and JQX reviewed and edited the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yufeng Wang or Wei Han.

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All experiments were approved by the Ethics Review Board of the Nanjing Stomatological Hospital (approval number: 2016-NKL036). All animal experiments and experimental protocols were in accordance with the animal care and use committee of the medical school of Nanjing University. All patients involved in this study provided written informed consent.

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Xie, J., Qi, X., Wang, Y. et al. Cancer‐associated fibroblasts secrete hypoxia‐induced serglycin to promote head and neck squamous cell carcinoma tumor cell growth in vitro and in vivo by activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Cell Oncol. 44, 661–671 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13402-021-00592-2

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