Paul J Grippo

Feinberg School of Medicine, Feinberg Clinical, Surgery, Surgical Oncology Division

Scopus Publication Detail

The publication detail shows the title, authors (with indicators showing other profiled authors), information on the publishing organization, abstract and a link to the article in Scopus. This abstract is what is used to create the fingerprint of the publication.

Pancreatic cancer cells respond to type I collagen by inducing snail expression to promote membrane type 1 matrix metalloproteinase-dependent collagen invasion

Mario A. Shields; Surabhi Dangi-Garimella; Seth B. Krantz; David J. Bentrem; Hidayatullah G. Munshi (Profiled Authors: David Jason Bentrem; Hidayatullah G Munshi)

Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2011;286(12):10495-10504.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by pronounced fibrotic reaction composed primarily of type I collagen. Although type I collagen functions as a barrier to invasion, pancreatic cancer cells have been shown to respond to type I collagen by becoming more motile and invasive. Because epithelial-mesenchymal transition is also associated with cancer invasion, we examined the extent to which collagen modulated the expression of Snail, a well known regulator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. Relative to cells grown on tissue culture plastic, PDAC cells grown in three-dimensional collagen gels induced Snail. Inhibiting the activity or expression of the TGF-β type I receptor abrogated collagen-induced Snail. Downstream of the receptor, we showed that Smad3 and Smad4 were critical for the induction of Snail by collagen. In contrast, Smad2 or ERK1/2 was not involved in collagen-mediated Snail expression. Overexpression of Snail in PDAC cells resulted in a robust membrane type 1-matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP, MMP-14)-dependent invasion through collagen-coated transwell chambers. Snail-expressing PDAC cells also demonstrated MT1-MMP-dependent scattering in three-dimensional collagen gels. Mechanistically, Snail increased the expression of MT1-MMP through activation of ERK-MAPK signaling, and inhibiting ERK signaling in Snail-expressing cells blocked two-dimensional collagen invasion and attenuated scattering in three-dimensional collagen. To provide in vivo support for our findings that Snail can regulate MT1-MMP, we examined the expression of Snail and MT1-MMP in human PDAC tumors and found a statistically significant positive correlation between MT1-MMP and Snail in these tumors. Overall, our data demonstrate that pancreatic cancer cells increase Snail on encountering collagen-rich milieu and suggest that the desmoplastic reaction actively contributes to PDAC progression.

PMID: 21288898     PMCID: PMC3060503

Scientific Context

This section shows information related to the publication - computed using the fingerprint of the publication - including related publications, related experts with fingerprints representing significant amounts of overlap between their fingerprint and this publication. The red dots indicate whether those experts or terms appear within the publication, thereby showing potential and actual connections.