Title
Regulation of signaling phosphoproteins by epidermal growth factor and Iressa (ZD1839) in human endometrial cancer cells that model type I and II tumors
Document Type
Article
Peer Reviewed
1
Publication Date
12-1-2005
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Molecular cancer therapeutics
Volume
4
NLM Title Abbreviation
Mol Cancer Ther
DOI
10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-05-0274
PubMed ID
16373704
Abstract
To understand how type I and II endometrial tumors uniquely respond to tyrosine kinase inhibitor treatments, we evaluated the signaling pathways of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor (EGFR) under the effects of EGF and Iressa (ZD1839, gefitinib) using Ishikawa H and Hec50co cells that model type I and II endometrial carcinomas, respectively. The cells were assayed for the expression of EGFR and both cell lines express an average of 100,000 EGFR per cell; however, Ishikawa H cells express higher levels of HER-2/neu compared with Hec50co cells (1.38 x 10(5) compared with 2.04 x 10(4), respectively). Using the Kinetworks multi-immunoblotting approach, which profiles 31 signaling phosphoproteins, the most striking result was that Hec50co cells show a higher number of basal phosphorylated sites compared with Ishikawa H cells. Furthermore, we identified targets of Iressa treatment in both cell lines. Iressa, at a dose of 1 micromol/L, blocked the autophosphorylation of EGFR in Ishikawa H and Hec50co cells with some distinctive effects on downstream effectors. Nevertheless, in both cell lines, EGF stimulated and Iressa blocked the major EGFR target mitogen-activated protein kinases extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1 and 2 equally. The high basal phosphorylation of numerous signaling molecules in Hec50co cells that were not inhibited by Iressa indicates that other growth factor pathways are active in addition to EGFR. We conclude that endometrial cancer cells that model type I and II carcinomas have the capacity to respond to EGFR inhibition as a therapeutic strategy; however, the response of the more aggressive type II tumors may be limited by the constitutive activation of other signaling pathways.
Keywords
Antineoplastic Agents/pharmacology, Blotting, Western, Cell Line, Tumor, Endometrial Neoplasms/metabolism/pathology, Epidermal Growth Factor/physiology, Female, Flow Cytometry, Humans, Phosphoproteins/metabolism, Quinazolines/pharmacology, Receptor, Epidermal Growth Factor/metabolism, Signal Transduction
URL
http://ir.uiowa.edu/obgyn_pubs/42