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Tumor Biology |
Departments of Urology [B. N. V., R. H. G.], Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine [G. B., A. J. B., R. E. S.], University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15232
| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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The earliest detection procedures available at present for colorectal cancer involve using tests for fecal blood or endoscopic procedures. However, significant tumor size must typically exist before fecal blood is detected. The sensitivity of the guaiac-based fecal occult blood tests is
26%, which means 74% of patients with malignant lesions will remain undetected (3)
. The visualization of precancerous and cancerous lesions represents the best approach to early detection, but colonoscopy is invasive with significant costs, risks, and complications (4
, 5)
. The identification of an early tumor marker that would allow reliable early cancer detection or provide early prognostic information could lead to a diagnostic assay that would greatly aid in the management of this disease.
At present, diagnostic blood tests based on the detection of CEA,3 a tumor-associated glycoprotein, are available. CEA is increased in 95% of colorectal, gastric, and pancreatic cancers and in the majority of breast, lung, and head and neck carcinomas (6) . Elevated CEA levels have also been reported in patients with nonmalignant disease, and many patients with colon cancer have normal CEA levels in the serum, especially during the early stage of the disease (7, 8, 9) . The utility of CEA in detecting recurrences is controversial and has yet to be widely applied (10 , 11) . In light of the available data, serum CEA determination possesses neither sensitivity nor the specificity to enable its use as a screening test for colorectal cancer in the asymptomatic population (12) .
To identify highly specific tumor markers, investigators have studied structural changes that are associated with neoplastic transformation. Alterations in the cellular and nuclear structure are hallmarks of the carcinogenic process. The identification of cancer is based on the presence of certain unique features of tumor cells. Changes in nuclear shape, size, and DNA organization, including major morphological transformation, are unique characteristics of cancer cells. The changes in nuclear structure are so prevalent in cancer cells that they are commonly used as pathological markers of transformation. The nuclear structure is determined by the nuclear matrix. Alterations in nuclear shape or structures that occur with neoplastic transformation are accompanied by changes in nuclear matrix composition and architecture (13) . Additionally, changes in the framework or composition of the nuclear structural framework may alter cellular phenotype by affecting transcription, replication, and/or other nuclear processes.
In 1974, Berezney and Coffey (14)
first described the nuclear matrix as the structural framework scaffolding of the nucleus, consisting of the peripheral lamins, protein complexes, an internal ribonucleic protein network, and residual nucleoli. The nuclear framework contains
10% of the nuclear proteins and is virtually devoid of lipids, DNA, and histones (15)
. Most of the NMPs identified to date are common to all cell types, but several identified NMPs are tissue and cell line specific (16)
. NMPs have been demonstrated to participate in many vital cellular functions, such as steroid hormone binding and gene transcription and translation (17, 18, 19, 20)
. Given that the nuclear matrix plays an important role in these vital cellular functions, changes in nuclear matrix structures could result in altered DNA topology and alterations in the interaction of various genes with the matrix, which could then participate in a cascade of events.
Individual cancer cell lines can be distinguished based on an aberrant pattern of expressed NMPs (21) . Cell type-specific "fingerprinting" of aberrant NMPs and their appearance in cancer development has led to the analysis of NMP composition of a variety of tumors in an effort to determine whether these proteins can be developed as diagnostic and/or prognostic markers for cancer. Using high-resolution, two-dimensional electrophoresis, we have demonstrated that specific NMP alterations exist in prostate, bladder, and renal cancers (22, 23, 24) . This oncological fingerprint can be used as a specific and reliable diagnostic test even when a distinction may not be made accurately on histological basis alone (25) .
As an example, we have identified a specific NMP pattern that is unique to patients with bladder cancer (26) . On the basis of the unique expression of a NMP, BLCA-4, in bladder cancer, we were able to develop an assay to detect its presence in urine. BLCA-4 is a sensitive (96.4%) and specific (100%) marker for the diagnosis of bladder cancer in the urine, and its appearance is an early change in the development of this disease. A large national clinical trial using this assay is under way (27) .
Additionally, tumor-specific alterations in nuclear matrix composition in various cancers (prostate, renal, breast, cervix, and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck) have been identified (22 , 23 , 28, 29, 30, 31) .
The detection of NMPs in the serum of patients with various types of cancer has also been accomplished (32) . Detection of NMPs in the serum and urine is possible attributable to release as tumor cells undergo degeneration and lysis. Antibodies developed to identify aberrant NMPs in colon cancer could become clinically important early markers with great specificity. The objective of this study was to investigate the NMP composition in colon cancer in an effort to identify unique cancer-associated proteins.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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High-Resolution, Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis.
High-resolution, two-dimensional electrophoresis was performed using the Investigator 2-D gel system (Genomic Solutions, Ann Arbor, MI) as described previously (24
, 33)
. One hundred µg of protein were loaded per gel onto a capillary-size isoelectric focusing column. One-dimensional isoelectric focusing was carried out for 18,000 V-h, using 1 mm x 18 inch tube gels after 1.5 h of prefocusing. The tube gels were extruded and placed on top of 1-mm SDS Duracryl (Genomic Solutions, Ann Arbor, MI) high-tensile strength PAGE slab gels. The gels were electrophoresed at 12°C constant temperature for 4.55 h. Gels were fixed with 50% methanol and 10% acetic acid. After thorough rinsing and rehydration, gels were treated with 5% glutaraldehyde and 5 mM DTT after buffering with 50 mM phosphate (pH 7.2). The gels were stained with silver stain according to the method of Wray et al. (Ref. 34
; Accurate Chemical Co., Westbury, NY). Molecular weights of colon NMPs were determined using standards provided by Genomic Solutions. Isoelectric points (PIs) were determined using carbamylated standards (BDH, distributed by Gallard-Schlessinger, Carle Place, NY, and Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO). Multiple gels were run for each sample, and multiple samples were run at different times. Only protein spots clearly and reproducibly identical in all of the gels of a sample type were taken into account as those representing the described NMPs. The gels were analyzed using the BioImage 2D Electrophoresis Analysis System (BioImage, Ann Arbor, MI), which matches protein spots between gels and sorts the gels and protein spots into a database.
Protein Sequencing.
Identification of the colon cancer-associated NMPs permitted the proteins to be isolated and sequenced. We have been successful in developing a technique for sequencing of proteins isolated from spots in two-dimensional gels. The proteins were isolated according to an adaptation of a technique developed by Gevaert et al. (35)
. The two-dimensional gels were negatively stained by incubation in 0.2 M imidazole for 15 min, washed several times with deionized water, and stained with warm 0.3 M zinc chloride. Deionized water was used to stop the staining, and the protein gel spots were excised and frozen at -80°C. The spots were then thawed, pooled, and mixed with 0.25% Coomassie Blue stain (45% methanol-9% acetic acid) for 20 min. With constant agitation, the spots were destained with destaining solution (5% methanol-7.5% acetic acid) for 1 h, washed with deionized water for 1 h, and equilibrated in sample buffer [1% SDS, 10% glycerol, 50 mM DTT, 12 mM Tris-HCl (pH 7.1)] for 1 h before being loaded into the acrylamide/agarose gel. The spots were then concentrated on a mini-agarose/acrylamide gel. The construction of the mini-agarose gel consisted of two prewarmed (60°C) glass plates (10 x 9 cm), separated by spacers 1 cm wide and 1.5 mm thick. A strip of Whatman 3-mm paper was inserted at the bottom to serve as a support for the lower agarose gel, preventing the gel from slipping during electrophoresis. The sample well was formed by a 2-cm wide x 1.5-cm thick spacer set between two parallel spacers, each 1 cm wide x 1.5 cm thick, inserted at the center of the glass plates and attached with adhesive tape at the top edge of the back plate. The lower gel consisted of a 2-cm deep agarose gel [1.45% agarose in 0.36 M Tris-HCl (pH 8.7), 0.1% SDS]. Once the agarose had set, it was overlayed with the polyacrylamide stacking gel [5.45% acrylamide, 0.13% bisacrylamide, 0.12 M Tris-HCl (pH 6.8), 0.1% SDS]. When the stacking gel had set, the central spacer was removed, leaving a well 2 cm high, 2 cm wide, and 1.5 mm thick. The mini-concentration gel was then mounted on a small electrophoresis tank (Bio-Rad, Hercules, CA), and the slot was filled with the equilibrated two-dimensional gel spots. The remaining volume was filled with blank gel pieces.
The gels were run at 100 V, allowing the proteins to elute out of the combined gel pieces and into the acrylamide. At this time, the central spacer was reinserted into the sample well until the dye front passed the two parallel 1-cm wide spacers. At that point, the central spacer was removed, and electrophoresis continued until the dye front entered the agarose and reached the filter paper.
The agarose section of the gel was fixed in fresh 50% methanol-10% acetic acid, with shaking, at room temperature for 30 min. The gel was stained with 0.05% Coomassie Blue stain (50% methanol-10% acetic acid) for 5 min and then destained in 5% methanol-7% acetic acid for 2 h with constant agitation. The protein band was then excised in a minimal volume of agarose gel, transferred into an sterile tube, and sent for peptide sequencing (Department of Biochemistry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI). Sequences were analyzed using the BLAST database, and sequence homologies were identified.
| RESULTS |
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| DISCUSSION |
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Colonoscopy is considered the gold standard for colon cancer diagnosis and offers the potential to both find and remove premalignant lesions, but it is associated with high cost, patient discomfort, complications, and variable sensitivity due at least in part to the experience of the endoscopist (36) .
In this study we identified four unique NMPs expressed in all tumor samples but in none of the adjacent and donor tissue samples. Two (CC3 and CC4) of the four proteins for colon cancer are expressed in the CaCo 2 human colon cancer cell line, raising the potential that these proteins are present in the colonic epithelium. These four unique proteins were not found in other tissues or cancer types. The sequence data we obtained from CC2 and CC3 are being used to help raise antibodies against them. These antibodies may be useful in developing early detection assays for the stool or blood.
The sequence data obtained from collected and concentrated two-dimensional spots revealed some information regarding possible identities of these proteins. The amino acid composition of CC1 identified this spot potentially as calreticulin. The multifunctional protein calreticulin is normally found within in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum. Yoon et al. (37) reported the identification of calreticulin in the nuclear matrix of hepatocellular carcinoma. Paschal et al. (38) reported calreticulin as a novel nuclear export factor. Further investigations are necessary to confirm that CC1 is actually calreticulin as well as to evaluate the functions of calreticulin in the nuclear matrix of colon cancer.
Unexpectedly, two of the identified proteins (CC6a and -b) were found in the cancer and normal donor tissue but not in the adjacent normal tissue. Both proteins are also expressed very strongly in the two human colon cancer cell lines studied. One possible explanation for this finding is that the adjacent tissue is undergoing an early form of instability that is distinct from either the donor or tumor tissues. The sequence data of the human protein (CC6a) showed homologies with hemoglobin ß chain and ß1 globin. Additionally these sequences showed similarity with proteins related to the SWI/SNF complex. The identification of these proteins could aid in our understanding of the function of the proteins and perhaps give us an explanation for their absence in the normal adjacent colon tissue. Although this would be an important finding, clearly other studies are necessary to establish this.
A limited colon cancer study has previously been performed. In this study, six aberrant NMPs were expressed in 18 of 18 colon tumors and 0 of 10 normal donor tissues and adjacent tissue (31) . The proteins identified in these studies appear distinct from the proteins identified here in molecular weight and isoelectric point. There are several possible explanations for these differences. First, the nuclear matrix isolation and electrophoresis procedures were not the same as those used by Keesee et al. (31) and could result in a different protein pattern. Second, the report by Keesee et al. only briefly described the tumors that they used without detail to the tumor stage. In addition, they described the separation of the mucosa from the muscularis propia before extraction of the nuclear matrix. It is not clear how one would separate just the mucosa from a tumor that has already invaded the muscularis propia. The study presented here along with previous works from our group demonstrate that normal adjacent tissue is different from normal donor tissue and that they therefore cannot be combined as control tissues, as has been done by others (23 , 31) .
The five proteins specific for the normal donor and adjacent tissue (N2N6) were not detected in the colon cancer cell lines. Potential explanations for this observation could include that the proteins are specific for nonmalignant tissue, that the source of the proteins is not from the epithelium, or that the cell lines, which are highly dedifferentiated, have lost expression of these proteins.
These studies demonstrate that NMPs isolated from human colon cancer are distinct from normal adjacent and donor tissue, indicating both loss and gain from specific proteins. The presence or absence of unique NMPs in cancer cells could provide novel information about their function in carcinogenesis.
The functional identification of these proteins and their early detection through the generation of NMP antibodies could be used to develop tests for colon cancer diagnosis and/or prognosis. The long-term goal of these studies is to generate antibodies to detect specific NMPs in the circulation, colonic aspirates, or tissue samples. Development of assays with these antibodies potentially could serve as early detection markers with high sensitivity and specificity.
| FOOTNOTES |
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1 This work was supported by a grant from the NIH (Early Detection Research Network/BDL Grant UO1 CA84968) and in part by the A.v. Humboldt Foundation. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Urology Research Laboratories, University of Pittsburgh, Suite G40, Shadyside Medical Center, 5200 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232. Phone: (412) 623-3903; Fax: (412) 623-3904; E-mail: getzenbergrh{at}msx.upmc.edu ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: CEA, carcinoembryonic antigen; NMP, nuclear matrix protein. ![]()
Received 10/31/01. Accepted 2/ 7/02.
| REFERENCES |
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