Genes, Vol. 10, Pages 921: Wnt-11 Expression Promotes Invasiveness and Correlates with Survival in Human Pancreatic Ductal Adeno Carcinoma

Genes, Vol. 10, Pages 921: Wnt-11 Expression Promotes Invasiveness and Correlates with Survival in Human Pancreatic Ductal Adeno Carcinoma Genes doi: 10.3390/genes10110921 Authors: Dart Arisan Owen Hao Jiang Uysal-Onganer Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the deadliest forms of cancer, proving difficult to manage clinically. Wnt-11, a developmentally regulated gene producing a secreted protein, has been associated with various carcinomas but has not previously been studied in PDAC. The present study aimed to elucidate these aspects first in vitro and then in a clinical setting in vivo. Molecular analyses of Wnt-11 expression as well as other biomarkers involved qRT-PCR, RNA-seq and siRNA. Proliferation was measured by MTT; invasiveness was quantified by Boyden chamber (Matrigel) assay. Wnt-11 mRNA was present in three different human PDAC cell lines. Wnt-11 loss affected epithelial-mesenchymal transition and expression of neuronal and stemness biomarkers associated with metastasis. Indeed, silencing Wnt-11 in Panc-1 cells significantly inhibited their Matrigel invasiveness without affecting their proliferative activity. Consistently with the in vitro data, human biopsies of PDAC showed significantly higher Wnt-11 mRNA levels compared with matched adjacent tissues. Expression was significantly upregulated during PDAC progression (TNM stage I to II) and maintained (TNM stages III and IV). Wnt-11 is expressed in PDAC in vitro and in vivo a...
Source: Genes - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research