LGR5 promotes invasion and migration by regulating YAP activity in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma cells under inflammatory condition

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 17; no. 10; p. e0275679
• Main Authors: Zhu, Zijia, Yu, Shuyuan, Niu, Kai, Wang, Ping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 26-10-2022; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Antibodies; Apoptosis; Biology and Life Sciences; Blood vessels; Breast cancer; Cell culture; Cell growth; Colorectal cancer; Development and progression; G protein-coupled receptors; Gene expression; Head & neck cancer; Health aspects; Immunofluorescence; Inflammation; Kinases; Leucine; Liver cancer; Medical prognosis; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mesenchyme; Metastasis; Phosphorylation; Proteins; Regulation; Research and Analysis Methods; Risk factors; siRNA; Squamous cell carcinoma; Stem cells; Throat cancer; Tumor proteins; Tumors; Western blotting; Wound healing; Yes-associated protein; China
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275679

High leucine-rich repeat-containing G-protein coupled receptor 5 (LGR5) expression caused by an inflammatory condition was reported to promote tumor proliferation and the epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) in various malignant tumors, but those effects have not been studied in hypopharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (HSCC) and the molecular mechanism remains unclear. This study was aimed to determine whether YAP/TAZ is involved in the regulation of LGR5 expression in the inflammatory condition. Human hypopharyngeal carcinoma FaDu cells were stimulated with inflammatory medium. The cell invasion ability were evaluated through wound healing assay and transwell invasion assay. The expression levels of EMT-related proteins, LGR5, and p-YAP were detected by real time PCR, western blotting, and immunofluorescence. The results showed that LGR5 expression and the EMT process were significantly enhanced under inflammatory condition. The expression of EMT-related proteins was up-regulated, while that of p-YAP was decreased. After inhibiting the high LGR5 expression with short interfering RNA, the expression of EMT-related proteins was also down-regulated, while that of p-YAP was significantly increased. The use of verteporfin (VP), an inhibitor of YAP activity that promotes YAP phosphorylation, did not affect LGR5 expression. In conclusion, we suggest that the inflammatory condition leads to high LGR5 expression, which up-regulating the expression of EMT-related proteins by inhibiting the YAP phosphorylation.