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Center for Endocrinological Oncology, Department of Endocrinology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Dr. Patrizia Limonta, Department of Endocrinology, Center for Endocrinological Oncology, Via Balzaretti 9, 20133 Milan, Italy. E-mail: limonta{at}imiucca.csi.unimi.it
| Abstract |
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These data suggest that LHRH agonists may inhibit the proliferation of human androgen-independent prostate tumor cells by interfering with some of the cellular mechanisms mediating the stimulatory action of the IGF system.
| Introduction |
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The clinical utility of LHRH agonists for the treatment of androgen-responsive prostate cancers is now well recognized (2, 3). These compounds act mainly by suppressing the activity of the pituitary-testicular axis (21); in addition, a direct inhibitory action at the level of the tumor has been found in our (22, 23) as well as other (24, 25) laboratories. Recently, we demonstrated that LHRH agonists may also exert a direct antiproliferative action on DU 145 cells, an androgen-independent prostate cancer cell line, either in culture (26) or when inoculated into nude mice (27).
The present study was performed to investigate whether LHRH agonists might exert their antiproliferative action on DU 145 cells by interfering with the activity of the IGF system. To this purpose, the effects of the LHRH agonist Zoladex (LHRH-A) on 1) the proliferative action of IGF-I, 2) the tyrosine phosphorylation of IGF-IR, 3) the concentration of IGF-IR, and 4) the expression and secretion of IGFBP-3 were studied.
| Materials and Methods |
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, a mouse monoclonal antibody to IGF-IR, was
purchased from Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. (Santa Cruz,
CA). Antiphosphotyrosine mouse monoclonal antibody (IgG2bk)
and IGFBP-3 rabbit polyclonal antiserum were obtained from Upstate
Biotechnology (Lake Placid, NY). The enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL)
Western blotting kit (Amersham) was used for the detection of
immunoprecipitated tyrosine-phosphorylated IGF receptor and
IGFBP-3.
Cell culture
The cell line DU 145 was obtained from American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA). These cells were derived from
a brain metastasis of a human androgen-unresponsive prostate carcinoma;
they retain the androgen independence of the original tumor and do not
express the androgen receptor (28). DU 145 cells (passages 6070) were
routinely grown in RPMI 1640 medium (Seromed Biochrom, Berlin, Germany)
supplemented with 5% FCS (Life Technologies, Paisley,
Scotland, UK), glutamine (1 mmol/liter) and antibiotics (100 U/ml
penicillin G sodium and 100 µg/ml streptomycin sulfate) in a
humidified atmo-sphere of 5% CO2-95% air. Under these
conditions, the doubling time was 36 h.
Cell proliferation studies
Cell growth studies were performed on exponentially growing
cells. DU 145 cells were plated at a density of 2 x
104 cells in 60-mm dishes. After 3 days, the seeding media
were changed to RPMI 1640 supplemented with 2% FCS. Under these
conditions, DU 145 cells have been reported to positively respond to
the mitogenic action of growth factors (11). Cells were treated every
day with IGF-I (10 ng/ml) in either the absence or presence of
different doses of LHRH-A (10-1010-6
M). After 7 days of treatment, cells were harvested and
counted, in a blind manner, by hemocytometer. Previous studies from our
laboratory have shown that LHRH-A does not affect prostate cancer cell
viability but, rather, exerts an effect on cell proliferation (22).
Tyrosine phosphorylation of IGF-IR
Analysis of the tyrosine phosphorylation of IGF-IR has been
performed as previously described by Neuenschwander et al.
(29), with some modifications.
In preliminary experiments, cells were treated with IGF-I (75 ng/ml) for different time periods (110 min) to evaluate the time course of the stimulation of tyrosine kinase activity of IGF-IR. As the maximum level of activity was found as early as 3 min in DU 145 cells (see Results), this time period has been used for subsequent studies. For these preliminary experiments, immunoprecipitation of IGF-IR and analysis of receptor tyrosine phosphorylation were performed as follows.
To study the possible interaction of LHRH-A with the IGF-I-induced
tyrosine phosphorylation of IGF-IR, DU 145 cells were plated at a
density of 1 x 106 cells in 100-mm dishes in RPMI
1640 medium supplemented with 5% FCS. After 2 days, cells were refed
with 10 ml serum-free medium for 24 h and then pretreated for 30
or 60 min with LHRH-A (10-6 M final
concentration in the cells) before IGF-I stimulation (3 min). At the
end of the treatment, the experimental medium was removed, the cell
layer was rinsed with PBS, and cells were then harvested in 1 ml RIPA
buffer [0.05 M Tris-HCl (pH 7.7), 0.15 M NaCl, 0.8%
Triton X-100, 0.8% sodium deoxycholate, 0.08% SDS, 10 mM
EDTA, 100 µM Na3VO4, 50
mM NaF, 0.3 mM phenylmethylsulfonylfluoride,
and 5 mM iodoacetic acid] on ice for 10 min. Cell lysates
were centrifuged at 15,000 x g for 20 min;
supernatants were immunoprecipitated with 2 µg/20 µl of the
monoclonal antibody IGF-IR
, raised against IGF-IR, for 15 min in the
presence of 10 µl rabbit antimouse IgG. Protein A-Sepharose (75 µl)
was added at room temperature for 30 min, and samples were then
centrifuged at 4000 x g for 5 min. Precipitated
proteins were electrophoresed by SDS-PAGE on a 7.5% polyacrylamide gel
(30) and blotted onto a nitrocellulose filter. Filters were incubated
with antiphosphotyrosine monoclonal antibody (1 µg/ml) for 1 h
at room temperature and then with an antimouse IgG at the final
concentration of 1:5000. Antibody bound to phosphotyrosine was detected
with the ECL-Western blotting detection system after a 5- to 10-min
exposure to a Hyperfilm-ECL x-ray film (Amersham, Milan, Italy) at room
temperature.
IGF-IR binding studies
DU 145 cells, plated at a density of 1 x 106
cells in 100-mm dishes and grown in standard culture conditions, were
treated with LHRH-A (10-6 M final
concentration in the cells) for 3 or 6 h. At the end of the
treatment, cells were washed with PBS, scraped, and resuspended in
Tris-HCl. The IGF-IR receptor assay was performed on cell membrane
preparations. [125I]IGF-I (50,000 cpm; 100 µl) was
incubated with 100-µl aliquots of cell membranes and 100 µl
unlabeled IGF-I (10-7 M). After 1-h incubation
at 22 C, 1 ml ice-cold buffer (10 mM Tris-HCl containing 1
mM dithiothreitol and 0.15% BSA, pH 7.6) was added, and
the tubes were immediately centrifuged at 48,000 x g
for 25 min. Supernatants were discarded, and pellets were counted in a
-counter (Packard Instruments, Milan, Italy). The maximum binding
capacity of each membrane preparation was calculated as previously
described (31).
The dissociation constant (Kd) of IGF-IR for each experimental group was determined by means of displacement curves. [125I]IGF-I was incubated with 100 µl cell membranes in either the absence or presence of different doses of unlabeled IGF-I (10-10-10-6 M). Incubations were performed as described above. The protein content of each membrane preparation was determined according to the method of Bradford (32).
Western blot analysis of IGFBP-3
DU 145 cells were plated at a density of 5 x
104 cells in 60-mm dishes and grown under standard
conditions. After 2 days, culture media were changed to serum-free RPMI
1640 medium for 24 h; cells were then treated with LHRH-A
(10-8 or 10-6 M) or with medium
alone for 48 h. Conditioned media from treated or control cells
were concentrated before electrophoresis through Centriplus-10
microconcentrators (Amicon, Beverly, MA) after acidification with 1
M acetic acid to dissociate IGFs from IGFBPs. Concentrates
were lyophilized and submitted to gel electrophoresis on 12%
SDS-polyacrylamide gels. Separated proteins were transferred to
nitrocellulose filters overnight at 4 C with the IGFBP-3 polyclonal
antibody at a final concentration of 1:1000. Filters were then
incubated with goat antirabbit IgG (1:3000). Antibody bound to IGFBP-3
was detected with the ECL-Western blotting detection system after 5- to
10-min exposure to a Hyperfilm-ECL x-ray film (Amersham) at room
temperature as described above.
Statistical analysis
The data from proliferation studies were analyzed according to
Dunnetts test (33) after one-way ANOVA. The data from displacement
curves for IGF-IR receptors were analyzed by the Ligand computerized
curve-fitting program (34), supplied by the Biochemical Computing
Technology Center (Nashville, TN).
Signals from tyrosine phosphorylation of IGF-IR and IGFBP-3 secretion were quantitated by densitometric analysis and then expressed as a percentage of the value of IGF-I-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of IGF-IR and of the control value, respectively.
| Results |
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| Discussion |
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IGFs and their binding proteins have been reported to play a crucial role in the proliferation of androgen-independent DU 145 prostate cancer cells (see references in introduction). The results here reported have shown that LHRH-A counteracts the proliferative effect of IGF-I, antagonizes the autophopshorylation of IGF-IR, and reduces the concentration of IGF-IR on DU 145 cell membranes. On the contrary, LHRH-A does not affect either the secretion or the expression of IGFBP-3. These observations indicate, then, that LHRH agonists inhibit the growth of androgen-independent prostate cancer cells at least partially by interfering with some of the mechanisms mediating the stimulatory action of IGF.
At partial variance with these data, Pinski and co-workers (24) have shown that LHRH agonists do not affect the concentration of IGF-I receptors in the androgen-independent Dunning R-3327-AT-1 rat prostate cancer in vivo. The different experimental conditions adopted (in vitro vs. in vivo studies, human vs. rat prostate cancer cells, LHRH agonist used) might be responsible for this discrepancy. On the other hand, a significant interaction between LHRH analogs and the IGF system has been previously reported for different types of tumors. Yano and co-workers (36) have shown that the LHRH agonist D-Trp6-LHRH exerts a significant antitumoral activity on the MCF-7 MIII human breast cancer in nude mice; this effect is accompanied by a decrease in the number of IGF-I binding sites. Moreover, Yano and co-workers (37) have further shown that the same LHRH agonist is able to inhibit the growth of OV-1063 human epithelial ovarian cancer xenografts by reducing the concentration of IGF-I receptors. Finally, Hershkovitz et al. (38) have reported that a LHRH antagonist (SB-75), which has been shown to inhibit the in vitro proliferation of MCF-7 breast cancer cells, counteracts the proliferative action of IGF-II on these cells.
The observation that LHRH-A does not affect the secretion of IGF-BP3 is intriguing. As quoted in the introduction, different IGFBPs are secreted by prostate cancer cells and participate in the local regulation of tumor growth by modulating the actions of IGFs. It is then possible that LHRH agonists might regulate the secretion of IGFBPs different from IGFBP-3, a possibility that is at present under investigation in our laboratory.
As mentioned in the introduction, we have previously shown that LHRH agonists exert a direct antiproliferative action not only on androgen-independent cells, but also on the androgen-dependent prostate cancer cell line LNCaP (22, 23). An IGF system is also expressed in these cells, although their ability to respond to the mitogenic action of this growth factor seems to be lower than that of steroid-unresponsive cells (9, 16, 39). Interestingly, preliminary results obtained in our laboratory indicate that in LNCaP cells, LHRH-A does not interfere with the activation or the concentration of IGF receptors; on the contrary, the compound significantly stimulates the secretion of IGFBP-3 in the culture medium. These results confirm that LHRH agonists may inhibit prostate cancer cell proliferation by interfering with the local action of the IGF system; the molecular mechanisms of this interaction appear to be different in androgen-dependent and androgen-independent cells.
The observation that at the level of prostate cancer, the
mechanism of the antiproliferative action of LHRH-A might be different
according to the androgen dependence or androgen independence of the
cells is in agreement with previous data from our laboratory (31). We
have reported that LHRH-A interferes with the stimulatory action of the
epidermal growth factor (EGF)/transforming growth factor-
system,
which has been previously shown to participate in the local regulation
of the growth of this tumor (40, 41, 42). In particular, we have shown that
in DU 145 cells, LHRH-A may counteract the mitogenic action of EGF,
inhibit the tyrosine autophosphorylation of the EGF receptor, and
reduce the concentration of EGF binding sites without modifying the
expression of the c-fos protooncogene that follows treatment
with the growth factor. Interestingly, in the androgen-dependent
LNCaP cells, LHRH-A antagonized the proliferative action of EGF by
reducing the concentration of EGF receptors and suppressing the
EGF-induced c-fos protooncogene expression without affecting
receptor autophosphorylation (31). These observations further confirm
that LHRH agonists exert a significant antimitogenic action on prostate
cancer cells by interfering with the activity of locally expressed
growth factor systems. However, the molecular mechanisms of this
antiproliferative action differ according to the androgen dependence or
androgen independence of the cells and on the type of growth factor
investigated.
| Footnotes |
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Received May 11, 1998.
| References |
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by the
androgen-responsive LNCaP human cancer cell line. Prostate 16:209218[Medline]
system as an autocrine growth
stimulatory loop in LNCaP cells. Endocr Relat Cancer 3:513
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