title: The proliferation impairment induced by AQP3 deficiency is the result of glycerol uptake and metabolism inhibition in gastric cancer cells.
abstract: Gastric cancer is a big threat to human health. Effective therapeutic cancer target remains to be discovered. Aquaporin 3 (AQP3) belongs to a family of transmembrane channels that are important in transporting water, glycerol, and other small molecules across the cell membrane. Glycerol that is transported by AQP3 is necessary for cell energy generation and lipid synthesis which fulfill the cell biological processes. Previous studies have shown that AQP3 is implicated in disease progression in several cancer types. However, whether AQP3-regulated glycerol uptake and metabolism were involved in cancer progression remains to be further studied. Our study demonstrated that the expression of AQP3 was positively correlated with glycerol level in human gastric cancer tissues. AQP3 inhibition induced proliferation impairment in gastric cancer cells both in vitro and in vivo. AQP3 inhibition that induced glycerol uptake reduction and glycerol administration would rehabilitate the cell proliferation. The energy and lipid production decreased when AQP3 was knocked down since the cellular glycerol level and several lipogenesis enzymes were downregulated. PI3K/Akt signaling pathway, which was involved in the impaired lipid and ATP production, was also inhibited after AQP3 knockdown. Our study indicated that the energy and lipid production inhibition, which were responsible for gastric cancer cell proliferation impairment, were induced by glycerol uptake reduction after AQP3 knockdown.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Bowen
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Liang
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Guangli
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Qun
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jiwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University, Nantong, China.
authors.forename: Xiaofei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhi
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.|Department of General Surgery, The People's Hospital of Taizhou, Taizhou, China.
authors.forename: Linjun
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Zekuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China. xuhao_njmu@sina.com.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate / Q000378:metabolism; D051400:Aquaporin 3 / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics*; D001692:Biological Transport / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D049109:Cell Proliferation / Q000235:genetics*; D018450:Disease Progression; D015536:Down-Regulation / Q000235:genetics*; D005990:Glycerol / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000502:physiology; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000235:genetics; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C496027:AQP3 protein, human; D008055:Lipids; D051400:Aquaporin 3; D000255:Adenosine Triphosphate; D019869:Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases; D051057:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt; D005990:Glycerol
keywords: AQP3; ATP; Glycerol; Lipogenesis; Proliferation