Cisplatin induces resistance by triggering differentiation of testicular embryonal carcinoma cells.
Although testicular germ cell tumors are generally quite responsive to treatment with cisplatin, a small fraction of them acquire resistance during therapy. Even when cisplatin treatment is successful the patient is often left with a residual teratoma at the site of the primary tumor suggesting that cisplatin may trigger differentiation in some tumors. Using the human embryonal carcinoma cell line NTera2/D1, we confirmed that exposure to the differentiating agent retinoic acid produced a reduction in pluripotency markers NANOG and POU5F1 (Oct3/4) and an acute concentration-dependent increase in resistance to both cisplatin and paclitaxel that reached as high as 18-fold for cisplatin and 61-fold for paclitaxel within four days. A two day exposure to cisplatin also produced a concentration-dependent decrease in the expression of the NANOG and POU5F1 and increased expression of three markers whose levels increase with differentiation including Nestin, SCG10 and Fibronectin. In parallel, exposure to cisplatin induced up to 6.2-fold resistance to itself and 104-fold resistance to paclitaxel. Paclitaxel did not induce differentiation or resistance to either itself or cisplatin. Neither retinoic acid nor cisplatin induced resistance in cervical or prostate cancer cell lines or other germ cell tumor lines in which they failed to alter the expression of NANOG and POU5F1. Forced expression of NANOG prevented the induction of resistance to cisplatin by retinoic acid. We conclude that cisplatin can acutely induce resistance to itself and paclitaxel by triggering a differentiation response in pluripotent germ cell tumor cells.
Department of Medicine and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America.
Paolo B
PB
Abada
Department of Medicine and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America.
Stephen B
SB
Howell
D015153:Blotting, Western; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000187:drug effects*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002945:Cisplatin / Q000009:adverse effects*; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm / Q000187:drug effects*; D005353:Fibronectins / Q000378:metabolism; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D000071317:Nanog Homeobox Protein; D009373:Neoplasms, Germ Cell and Embryonal / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000503:physiopathology*; D064231:Nestin / Q000378:metabolism; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3 / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D050777:Stathmin; D013736:Testicular Neoplasms / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000494:pharmacology
D005353:Fibronectins; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; D008565:Membrane Proteins; C486780:NANOG protein, human; D000071317:Nanog Homeobox Protein; D064231:Nestin; D050814:Octamer Transcription Factor-3; C494173:POU5F1 protein, human; C063314:STMN2 protein, human; D050777:Stathmin; D014212:Tretinoin; D002945:Cisplatin