Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 facilitates metastasis of gastric cancer through driving epithelial-mesenchymal transition and PI3K/Akt/GSK3β activation

• Published in: Scientific reports 2017-03, Vol.7 (1), p.45275-45275, Article 45275
• Main Authors: Li, Can, Zhang, Jie, Wu, Hao, Li, Lili, Yang, Caiting, Song, Shushu, Peng, Peike, Shao, Miaomiao, Zhang, Mingming, Zhao, Junjie, Zhao, Ran, Wu, Weicheng, Ruan, Yuanyuan, Wang, Lan, Gu, Jianxin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 13/105; 13/109; 13/51; 13/89; 38/77; 631/67/2329; 692/4028/67/1857; Cell Line, Tumor; Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition; Female; Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 beta - metabolism; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Male; multidisciplinary; Neoplasm Metastasis; Neoplasm Staging; Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinases - metabolism; Prognosis; Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-akt - metabolism; Scavenger Receptors, Class E - metabolism; Science; Signal Transduction; Stomach Neoplasms - metabolism; Stomach Neoplasms - pathology; Tissue Array Analysis - methods; Up-Regulation
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep45275

Lectin-like oxidized low-density lipoprotein receptor-1 (LOX-1) is a pattern recognition receptor that plays a critical role in vascular diseases and host immune response. Recently, our research discovered that LOX-1 could facilitate the uptake of dying cells and cross-presentation of cellular antigen via binding with heat shock proteins, which have a close relationship with gastric neoplasia. Therefore, we speculated that LOX-1 may serve as an oncogene in gastric cancer (GC) development and progression. In this study, through immunohistochemistry staining assay and cancer-related databases, we found that LOX-1 expression was up-regulated in GC tissues and correlated with a poor prognosis in GC patients. The expression of LOX-1 was an independent prognostic factor for OS in GC patients, and the incorporation of LOX-1 with TNM stage is more accurate for predicting prognosis. Additionally, in vitro study by transwell assay and western blot analysis confirmed that LOX-1 could promote the migration and invasion of GC cells by driving epithelial-mesenchymal transition and PI3K/Akt/GSK3β activation. Taken together, we first explored the expression profiles, clinical significance and biological function of LOX-1 in GC, and these data suggest that LOX-1 may represent a promising prognostic biomarker for GC and offer a novel molecular target for GC therapies.