CCL25/CCR9 Signal Promotes Migration and Invasion in Hepatocellular and Breast Cancer Cell Lines.

Cancer is one of the most lethal diseases worldwide, and metastasis is the most common cause of patients' deaths. Identification and inhibition of markers involved in metastasis process in cancer cells are promising works to block metastasis and improve prognoses of patients. Chemokines are a superfamily of small, chemotactic cytokines, whose functions are based on interaction with corresponding receptors. It has been found that one of the functions of chemokines is to regulate migration and invasion abilities of lymphocytes, as well as cancer cells. Chemokine receptor 9 (CCR9) regulates trafficking of lymphocytes and cancer cell lines when interacting with its exclusive ligand chemokine 25 (CCL25). However, the mechanisms of CCL25/CCR9 signal that regulates metastasis of cancer cells are not completely known yet. In this study, we stimulated or inhibited CCL25/CCR9 signal in breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231) and hepatocellular cancer cell lines (HepG2 and HUH7), and found that CCL25/CCR9 signal resulted in different promotion of migration and invasion in different cell lines. These phenomena could be explained by selective regulation of several markers of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Our findings suggested that CCL25/CCR9 signal may provide cancer cells with chemotactic abilities through influencing several EMT markers.