Background
Metabolic reprogramming is one of the essential features of tumors [
1]. Specific metabolic processes can be directly involved in the transformation process or biological processes that support tumor growth [
2]. Amino acids play a number of roles in tumor cell growth and survival, including providing carbons to the tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA cycle), nitrogen to nucleobase synthesis, in maintaining redox homeostasis and other metabolic activities [
3]. Meanwhile, amino acids can regulate the development of tumor cells by activating some oncogenes [
4]. The liver is the key organ for coordinating metabolic activities, including nitrogen metabolism, detoxification and energy metabolism. In physiological and pathological conditions, the liver provides the energy necessary to maintain the function of different organs. Abnormalities in circulating amino acid metabolite levels were observed in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, clinical studies showed that circulating levels of some biogenic amines and branched-chain, aromatic and glucogenic amino acids were closely associated with the risk of HCC [
5]. Therefore, further studies of molecular mechanism underlying amino acid metabolism with HCC which are able to assist with developing novel therapeutic strategies are urgently needed.
Moreover, another risk factor associated with tumorigenesis and tumor progression is an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) abundance, which is caused by the production and elimination of an imbalance in the composition of reactive oxygen species [
6]. An increase in ROS has been detected in various cancers and has been shown to have multiple roles in activating pro-tumorigenesis signals, driving DNA damage and genetic instability, and enhancing cell survival and proliferation. Counterintuitively ROS can also promote anti-tumorigenic signaling, and trigger tumor cell death induced by oxidative stress. Furthermore, as the important messenger, ROS is associated with the expression of lots of transcription factors [
7].
The forkhead box (FOX) protein family consists of a group of evolutionarily- conserved transcription factors characterized by a common DNA-binding domain known as the forkhead box domain [
8]. FOX family proteins involve in cell growth, differentiation and other biological processes [
9]. The deregulation of Fox family transcription factors is important for the development and progression of tumors [
8]. Some researchers have shown that abnormal expression of FOX family protein plays a pivotal role in metabolism. The forkhead box O (FOXO) family participates in the regulation of a large number of biological activities from development, cell signal transduction, tumorigenesis to cell metabolism [
10]. FOXO1 induced CIC promoter activity, which involved in lipid synthesis and OXOPHOS [
11]. The balance of FOXO and FOXM1 transcription factors integrates Adenosine 5′-monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-mediated metabolic status and cell cycle regulation through competitive regulation of target genes (including Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF1)) in neonatal cardiomyocytes [
12]. FOXK1 and FOXK2 are important in the regulation of mitochondrial function, metabolism and apoptosis [
13]. FOXO family facilitated the cellular antioxidant defense, and on the other hand, ROS may regulate FOXO activity by regulating phosphorylation, lysine acetylation and ubiquitination and regulate FOXO expression by transcriptional regulation, posttranscriptional regulation and transcriptional coregulators [
14]. Therefore, FOX family proteins involve in the development of diseases by altering the activities of cell metabolism and the accumulation of ROS.
As a member of FOX family proteins, FOXC1 was first found to be associated with the ocular dominant genetic disease Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome (ARS) [
15]. FOXC1 regulated normal embryonic development and is involved in the development and function of multiple organs [
16]. Some research has shown that FOXC1 is positively correlation with poor prognosis of a variety of tumors, including pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, acute myeloid leukemia, basal-like breast cancer, gastric cancer and colon cancer [
17‐
21]. Our previous research indicated that FOXC1 is important for promoting HCC metastasis [
22,
23]. Nevertheless, whether FOXC1 promotes HCC progression through amino acid metabolism is unclear. Using amino acid metabolism RT
2 Profiler PCR array (Supplementary Table S
1), we found that FOXC1 downregulated cystathionine γ-lyase (CTH) expression, which is associated with cysteine metabolism. Cysteine metabolism is involved in redox balance by regulating the ROS level.
In this study, we demonstrated that FOXC1 upregulated DNA methylases 3B (DNMT3B) to induce DNA hypermethylation of CTH promoter and CTH gene silencing, which resulted in the decrease of cysteine levels and increases of ROS levels.
Moreover, the high level of ROS increased the expression of FOXC1 through extracellular regulated protein kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2)- phospho-ETS Transcription Factor 1 (p-ELK1) pathway, which formed a ROS-FOXC1-cysteine metabolism-ROS positive feedback loop to promote HCC proliferation and metastasis.
Materials and methods
Patients and follow-up
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Tongji Medical College. All patients provided full consent for the study. Cohort I included 280 adult patients with HCC who underwent curative resection between 2003 and 2005 at the Tongji Hospital of Tongji Medical College (Wuhan, China). Cohort II included 210 adult patients with HCC who underwent curative resection between 2006 and 2008 at the Tongji Hospital of Tongji Medical College (Wuhan, China). A preoperative clinical diagnosis of HCC was based on the diagnostic criteria of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (a) distinctive pathologic diagnosis; (b) no preoperative anticancer treatment or distant metastases; (c) curative liver resection; and (d) complete clinicopathologic and follow-up data. The differentiation statuses were graded according to the method of Edmondson and Steine. The pTNM classification for HCC was based on The American Joint Committee on Cancer/International Union Against Cancer staging system (6th edition, 2002). Follow-up data were summarized at the end of December 2013 (Cohort I) and December 2016 (Cohort II, range 4–96 months) respectively. The patients were evaluated every 2–3 months during the first 2 years and every 3–6 months thereafter. All follow-up examinations were performed by physicians who were blinded to the study. During each check-up, the patients were monitored for tumor recurrence by measuring the serum AFP levels and by performing abdominal ultrasound examinations. A computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging examination was performed every 3–6 months, together with a chest radiographic examination. The diagnostic criteria for HCC recurrence were the same as the preoperative criteria. The time to recurrence and overall survival were the primary endpoints. The time to recurrence was calculated from the date of resection to the date of a diagnosis with tumor recurrence. The overall survival was calculated from the date of resection to the date of death or of the last follow-up.
BALB/C nude mice (5 weeks old) were housed under standard conditions and cared for according to the institutional guidelines for animal care. All animal experiments were approved by the Committee on the Use of Live Animals in Teaching and Research (CULATR), Huazhong University of Science and Technology. For in vivo metastasis assay, human luciferase labeled HCC cells (4.0 × 106) in the 100 μl of phosphate-buffered saline that were mixed with 100 μl Matrigel were injected into the right lobes of livers of the nude mice under anesthesia (10 for each group). The in vivo tumor formation and metastases were monitored using the bioluminescence. For in vivo signal detection, D-luciferin (Perkin-Elmer) at 100 mg/kg was injected intraperitonially into the nude mice. Bioluminescent images were captured using an IVIS 100 Imaging System (Xenogeny). At the 9 weeks, the mice were sacrificed and the livers and lungs were collected and underwent histological examination.
Plasmid construction
Plasmid construction was performed according to standard procedures as outlined in our previous study. The primers are presented in Supplementary Table S
7. For instance, the
DNMT3B promoter construct, (− 1303/+ 109)
DNMT3B, was generated from human genomic DNA. This construct corresponds to the sequence from − 1303 to + 109 (relative to the transcriptional start site) of the 5′-flanking regions of the human
DNMT3B gene. It was generated with forward and reverse primers incorporating
KpnI and
HindIII sites at the 5′ and 3′-ends, respectively. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product was cloned into the
KpnI and
HindIII sites of the pGL3-Basic vector (Promega). The 5′-flanking deletion constructs of the
DNMT3B promoter, (− 924/+ 109)
DNMT3B, (− 808/+ 109)
DNMT3B, (− 195/+ 109)
DNMT3B, were similarly generated using the (− 1303/+ 109)
DNMT3B construct as the template. The FOXC1 binding sites in the
DNMT3B promoter were mutated using the QuikChange II Site-Directed Mutagenesis Kit (Stratagene). The constructs were confirmed by DNA sequencing. Other promoter constructs were cloned in the same manner.
DNA methylation analyses
Genomic DNA was isolated from cells using Genomic DNA Purification kit following the manufacturer’s instructions (Promega). Bisulfite modification of genomic DNA was carried out using the EZDNA methylation Kit (Zymo Research). Briefly, 1 μg of genomic DNA was denatured by NaOH (final concentration, 0.2 mol/L) for 10 min at 37 °C. Hydroquinone (10 mmol/L, 30 μl) and 520 μl of 3 mol/L sodium hydroxide (pH 5) were added, and samples were incubated at 50 °C for 16 h. Modified DNA was purified using Wizard DNA Clean-Up System following the manufacturer’s instructions (Promega) and eluted into 50 μl water. DNA was treated with NaOH (final concentration, 0.3 mol/L) for 5 min at room temperature, ethanol precipitated, and resuspended in 20 μl water. Modified DNA was used immediately or stored at − 20 °C. Primer sequences specific to unmethylated and methylated promoter sequences are listed in Table S6. Each methylation-specific PCR reaction incorporated 100 ng of bisulfite-treated DNA as template, 10 pmol/L of each primer, 100 pmol/L deoxynucleoside triphosphate, 10 PCR buffer, and 1 unit of JumpStart Red Taq Polymerase (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO) in a final reaction volume of 25 μl. Cycle conditions were as follows: 95 °C 5 min; 35 cycles (95 °C 30 s, 60 °C 30 s, and 72 °C 30 s); and 72 °C 5 min. Methylation-specific PCR products were analyzed with nondenaturing 6% polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and stained with ethidium bromide.
Bisulfite genomic sequencing (BGS)
For bisulfite cloning and sequencing, the amplification was performed using primers designed by the online program (
http://www.urogene.org/cgi-bin/methprimer/methprimer.cgi). Bisulfite genomic sequencing was performed to characterize the methylation density in the promoter of CTH using the BigDye Terminator Cycle Sequencing kit version 1.0 (Applied Biosystems). Thirteen CpG sites spanning − 260 to − 20 of the
CTH gene were evaluated. Sequences were analyzed by using SeqScape software (Applied Biosystems) and Bioedit (
http://www.mbio.ncsu.edu/BioEdit/bioedit.html). The nucleotide sequences of the primers used for BGS are provided in Supplementary Table S
7.
ROS levels measurement
The 2′,7′- dichlorofluorescein diacetate (DCFH-DA) (Beyotime, China) was used to detect the ROS levels. Firstly, added DCFH-DA to DMEM (without FBS) in a ratio of 1:1000, and then a volume of 2 mL mixed solution was added to the HCC cells, which were washed 2 times by PBS. Then we put the cells into incubator for 30 min at 37 °C in dark. Then HCC cells were washed again with DMEM (without FBS) for three times, we measured the ROS levels by fluorescence microscope and flow cytometry.
GSH/GSSG, GSH and cysteine levels measurement
The GSH/GSSG ratio, GSH levels and cysteine levels were detected by Reduced glutathione (GSH) assay kit (Nanjing jiancheng, China), Total glutathione / Oxidized glutathione assay kit (Nanjing jiancheng, China) and Cysteine content test kit (Nanjing jiancheng, China) on the basis of the manufacturer’s instructions. The transfected cells were lysed in culture dishes containing a lysis buffer, and 0.5 ml supernatant was taken from the resulting lysates which were centrifuged. Two ml of the application solution was added and mixed evenly, and then centrifuged at 3000 g for 10 min. Lastly 1 ml of the supernatant was taken for color reaction. The measurements were conducted with a UV–visible spectrophotometer.
A detailed description of the materials and methods used in this study can be found in the online supplementary material.
Discussion
Hepatocellular carcinoma has a high rate of cancer-related death [
37]. Early recurrence and metastasis often occur after radical resection of HCC, which leads to poor prognosis of HCC patients [
38]. Thus, the molecular mechanism of HCC metastasis needs to be further elucidated to develop novel therapeutic strategies. As we all know, dysregulated metabolism is a hallmark of cancer, manifested through alterations in metabolites [
1]. Studies reported that the progression of HCC is associated with the aberrant levels of amino acids [
5]. However, how deregulation of amino acid metabolism affect HCC proliferation and metastasis remains unclear. Cysteine is a semi-essential amino acid, which can be acquired from the diet or synthesized from methionine through the reverse transsulfuration pathway by cystathionine γ-lyase (CTH) [
26]. Depletion of CTH results in oxidative stress, vascular defects, abnormal stress responses, and hyperhomocysteinemia [
39,
40]. Cysteine produced the ROS scavenger glutathione, which decrease ROS levels, by the enzymes GCLC, GCLM [
41]. Cysteine levels determines the GSH levels and influence the ROS levels. Uncontrolled increase in ROS production result in damage to large molecules such as DNA, proteins and lipids, leading to genomic instability and changes in cell growth [
42]. As a messenger, ROS also affect several transcription factors, such as HIF1-α, NF-κB, AP-1, NRF2, which are important for cancer development [
6].
FOX family play different roles in HCC development and progression. FOXA1 and FOXA2 have controversial roles in HCC, they can act as a target of no-coding RNAs to promote HCC [
43,
44] and suppressing PIK3R1 to inhibit the HCC proliferation, migration and invasion [
45]. FOXC transcription factors promote the progression of HCC by regulating MMPs [
23,
46]. FOXM1 could regulate the cell cycle and EMT related molecules expression to facilitate HCC progression [
47]. FOXO1 and FOXO3a act as both of suppressor and oncogene in HCC determined by the phosphorylation status and subcellular location [
48,
49]. FOXP3 could inhibit or promote HCC by regulating the tumor microenvironment, mutation, post-translational modification or alternative RNA splicing [
50‐
53]. Our previous studies showed that FOXC1 is important for promoting HCC metastasis [
22,
23]. In this study, our amino acid metabolism RT
2 Profiler PCR array indicated that FOXC1 inhibited CTH expression, which is involved in cysteine pathways. Overexpression of FOXC1 decreased the cysteine level and increased the ROS level in HCC cells. Overexpression of CTH significantly decreased FOXC1-mediated HCC proliferation and metastasis, while knockdown of CTH recused the suppression of cell proliferation and metastasis that was induced by the down-regulation of FOXC1. In human HCC tissues, FOXC1 expression was negatively associated with CTH expression, and the patients with high expression of FOXC1 and low expression of CTH exhibited the worst prognosis. These results indicated that FOXC1 facilitated HCC proliferation and metastasis through inhibiting CTH expression and increasing ROS levels.
Although we found that overexpression of FOXC1 inhibited CTH expression, its underlying mechanism remains unclear. Some researchers reported that the attenuation of
CTH gene transcription is resulted from DNA hypermethylation of CpG rich region in
CTH promoter [
28,
30]. DNA methylation, driven by DNMT1, DNMT3A and DNMT3B, can inhibit gene expression. DNMT1 has high affinity for hemi methylated DNA and maintain the constitutive methylation status of DNA [
54]. DNMT3A and DNMT3B act primarily as de novo methyltransferases to constitute DNA methylation [
55]. Our study indicated that the CpG island of
CTH promoter was highly methylated and the expression of DNMT3B was markedly increased in FOXC1-overexpressing HCC cells (Huh7-FOXC1) than the control groups. In contrast, the expression of DNMT3B was downregulated and the DNA hypermethylation of
CTH promoter was inhibited in FOXC1-knockdown cells (MHCC97H-shFOXC1) as compared to control cells. Interestingly, FOXC1 upregulated DNMT3B expression through directly binding to its promoter and transactivated its promoter activities. Moreover, downregulation of DNMT3B decreased FOXC1-mediated HCC proliferation and metastasis, whereas upregulation of DNMT3B reversed the inhibition of HCC proliferation and metastasis caused by FOXC1 down-regulated. In human HCC tissues, FOXC1 expression was positively associated with DNMT3B expression, and the patients with positive co-expression of FOXC1 and DNMT3B had the worst prognosis. These studies indicated that overexpression of FOXC1 induced the DNA hypermethylation of
CTH promoter and
CTH gene silencing through upregulating DNMT3B expression, which resulted in HCC proliferation and metastasis.
Although we identified FOXC1 altered the cysteine metabolism and ROS levels, and FOXC1-mediated high level of ROS promoted HCC proliferation and metastasis, the mechanism underlying FOXC1 overexpression in HCC needs to be clarified. In this study, we observed that high level ROS upregulated FOXC1 expression via the ERK1/2-pELK1 pathway in HCC cells. Overexpression of FOXC1 increased ROS levels through regulating cysteine metabolism, which formed a positive feedback loop to facilitate HCC progression. Our in vitro study showed that the antioxidant NAC inhibited ROS-mediated FOXC1 upregulation, thereby inhibiting ROS-FOXC1-cysteine-ROS signaling-mediated HCC proliferation and invasion. Furthermore, FOXC1 expression was positively correlated with 8-OHdG (oxidative damage marker) and p-ELK1 (activated ELK1) expression in human HCC tissues. HCC patients with positive coexpression of 8-OHdG/FOXC1 or p-ELK1/FOXC1 exhibited the worst prognosis. These studies indicated that ROS-ERK1/2-p-ELK1 signaling mediated FOXC1 overexpression promoted HCC progression.
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.