Papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) is frequently associated with RET (rearranged in transformation) gene rearrangement that results in fusing the RET tyrosine kinase domain to the N-terminal region of heterologous genes [
1]. Among human tumors, RET rearrangements are restricted to the thyroid gland, where they are considered specific for papillary carcinoma [
2,
3]. To date, 12 different fusion partner genes are reported to form at least 17 different RET hybrid oncogenes. The most prevalent variants of these chimeric oncogenes are RET/PTC1 (60 to 70%) and RET/PTC3 (20 to 30%) [
1,
3‐
5]. The rearrangements result in ligand-independent activation of RET tyrosine kinase which is considered crucial for activating the cellular signaling pathways involved in transformation of thyroid cells. Indeed, RET/PTC transforms thyroid follicular cells
in vitro [
6], and the specific overexpression of RET/PTC1 or RET/PTC3 in the thyroid of transgenic mice leads to the development of tumors that resemble PTC [
7‐
9].
In recent years, extensive research on the RET/PTC signaling pathway has greatly advanced our understanding of the mechanisms of thyroid tumorigenesis. It has been shown that the transforming potential of RET/PTC is related to the activation of multiple signaling cascade and tyrosine kinase [
10]. As the chimeric forms of RET tyrosine kinase are translated into fusion proteins, the protein-protein interaction motifs of amino terminal region allow dimerizing interfaces, which then lead to RET autophosphorylation and constitutive kinase activity. Consequently, when phosphorylated, it acts as a binding site for several adaptors and signaling molecules, including Src homology 2 domain containing (Shc), growth factor receptor binding protein2 (Grb2), insulin receptor substrate 1/2 and phospholipase Cγ [
1]. This triggers a cytoplasmic signaling that leads to the activation of Ras/ERK and phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI-3K) signaling pathways [
11]. In a recent experiment, the signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (STAT-3) has been identified as a direct substrate for RET/PTC tyrosine kinase in thyroid cells. In fact, it has been shown that RET/PTC associates with STAT-3 and activates it through the specific phosphorylation of the tyrosine 705 residue, and thus turns on the cyclin D1, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and intracellular adhesion molecule 1 [
12]. These findings suggest that STAT3 activation by the RET/PTC tyrosine kinase is one of the critical signaling pathways for cellular transformation during the condition of thyroid tumorigenesis.
Phospholipase D (PLD) family is a signal transduction-activated enzyme, which is responsible for many cellular signals during a variety of cellular processes, including membrane trafficking, cytoskeletal reorganization, cell proliferation, differentiation, survival and apoptosis [
13]. Two isoforms of PLD, PLD1 and PLD2, have been studied in mammalian cells [
14,
15], and they differ in the mechanism of activation and subcellular localization [
14,
16]. PLD1 has a low basal activity and is found throughout the cells, but particularly in perinuclear, Golgi and heavy membrane fractions [
17,
18]. In contrast, PLD2 has a high basal activity and is localized mainly on the plasma membrane [
18]. Although PLD1 has likewise been implicated in retrograde vesicle movement in the Golgi and receptor endocytosis [
16,
19,
20], both PLD1 and PLD2 have also reported to provide a survival signal that overcomes cell cycle arrest and apoptotic cell death [
21]. Many studies have shown that PLD activity is enhanced in response to platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) [
22], epidermal growth factor (EGF) [
23], fibroblast growth factor (FGF) [
24], growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor 1 [
25]. PLD activity is also elevated in the cells transformed by a variety of transforming oncogenes and some human cancers [
21,
26]. More importantly, it has been reported that PLD not only suppresses apoptosis in the cells with elevated tyrosine kinase activity but also cooperates with tyrosine kinases to contribute to progressing to a malignant phenotypes [
27,
28]. This suggests that the elevated PLD activity may have a critical role for cell proliferation, survival signaling, and tumor progression in cancers where elevated tyrosine kinase expression is common. Indeed, the elevated expression or activity of PLD has been reported in breast cancer tissues and cell lines where frequently there is the elevated expression of tyrosine kinases such as the EGF receptor, c-Src and Her2/Neu [
29]. Consequent with this idea, we hypothesize that PLD synergistically functions to activate STAT3 signaling by directly interacting with thyroid oncogenic kinase RET/PTC in the papillary thyroid cancer cells.