Hepatocyte-specific Smad7 deletion accelerates DEN-induced HCC via activation of STAT3 signaling in mice
TGF-β signaling in liver cells has variant roles in the dynamics of liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We previously found a correlation of high levels of the important endogenous negative TGF-β signaling regulator SMAD7 with better clinical outcome in HCC patients. However, t...
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Published in | Oncogenesis (New York, NY) Vol. 6; no. 1; p. e294 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
United States
Nature Publishing Group
01.01.2017
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | TGF-β signaling in liver cells has variant roles in the dynamics of liver diseases, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We previously found a correlation of high levels of the important endogenous negative TGF-β signaling regulator SMAD7 with better clinical outcome in HCC patients. However, the underlying tumor-suppressive molecular mechanisms are still unclear. Here, we show that conditional (TTR-Cre) hepatocyte-specific SMAD7 knockout (KO) mice develop more tumors than wild-type and corresponding SMAD7 transgenic mice 9 months after diethylnitrosamine (DEN) challenge, verifying SMAD7 as a tumor suppressor in HCC. In line with our findings in patients, Smad7 levels in both tumor tissue as well as surrounding tissue show a significant inverse correlation with tumor numbers. SMAD7 KO mice presented with increased pSMAD2/3 levels and decreased apoptosis in the tumor tissue. Higher tumor incidence was accompanied by reduced P21 and upregulated c-MYC expression in the tumors. Activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription factor 3 signaling was found in Smad7-deficient mouse tumors and in patients with low tumoral SMAD7 expression as compared with surrounding tissue. Together, our results provide new mechanistic insights into the tumor-suppressive functions of SMAD7 in hepatocarcinogenesis. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2157-9024 2157-9024 |
DOI: | 10.1038/oncsis.2016.85 |