Wnt3a Promotes the Vasculogenic Mimicry Formation of Colon Cancer via Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Lisha Qi¹  Wangzhao Song¹  Zhiyong Liu¹  Xiulan Zhao²  Wenfeng Cao¹  Baocun Sun¹ 

[1] Department of Pathology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, Tianjin 300060, China; E-Mails:;Department of Pathology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China; E-Mail:

关键词: Wnt/β-catenin signaling;    vasculogenic mimicry;    Wnt3a;    Dkk1;    colon cancer;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms160818564

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Our previous study provided evidence that non-canonical Wnt signaling is involved in regulating vasculogenic mimicry (VM) formation. However, the functions of canonical Wnt signaling in VM formation have not yet been explored. In this study, we found the presence of VM was related to colon cancer histological differentiation (p < 0.001), the clinical stage (p < 0.001), and presence of metastasis and recurrence (p < 0.001). VM-positive colon cancer samples showed increased Wnt3a expression (p < 0.001) and β-catenin nuclear expression (p < 0.001) compared with the VM-negative samples. In vitro, over-regulated Wnt3a expression in HT29 colon cancer cells promoted the capacity to form tube-like structures in the three-dimensional (3-D) culture together with increased expression of endothelial phenotype-associated proteins such as VEGFR2 and VE-cadherin. The mouse xenograft model showed that Wnt3a-overexpressing cells grew into larger tumor masses and formed more VM than the control cells. In addition, the Wnt/β-catenin signaling antagonist Dickkopf-1(Dkk1) can reverse the capacity to form tube-like structures and can decrease the expressions of VEGFR2 and VE-cadherin in Wnt3a-overexpressing cells. Taken together, our results suggest that Wnt/β-catenin signaling is involved in VM formation in colon cancer and might contribute to the development of more accurate treatment modalities aimed at VM.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.