Zhong Jiamin, Kang Quan, Cao Youde, He Baicheng, Zhao Piao, Gou Yannian, Luo Yetao, He Tong-Chuan, Fan Jiaming
Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Diagnostic Medicine, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, College of Laboratory Medicine, Chongqing Medical University Chongqing 400016, China.
Stem Cell Biology and Therapy Laboratory, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Child Development and Disorders, The Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University Chongqing 400014, China.
Am J Cancer Res. 2021 Mar 1;11(3):793-811. eCollection 2021.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide although its pathogenic mechanism remains to be fully understood. Unlike normal cells, most cancer cells rely on aerobic glycolysis and are more adaptable to the microenvironment of hypoxia and hypoglycemia. Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4 (BMP4) plays important roles in regulating proliferation, differentiation, invasion and migration of HCC cells. We have recently shown that BMP4 plays an important role in regulating glucose metabolism although the effect of BMP4 on glucose metabolic reprogramming of HCC is poorly understood. In this study, we found that BMP4 was highly expressed in HCC tumor tissues, as well as HCC cell lines that were tolerant to hypoxia and hypoglycemia. Mechanistically, we demonstrated that BMP4 protected HCC cells from hypoxia and hypoglycemia by promoting glycolysis since BMP4 up-regulated glucose uptake, the lactic acid production, the ATP level, and the activities of rate limiting enzymes of glycolysis (including HK2, PFK and PK). Furthermore, we demonstrated that BMP4 up-regulated HK2, PFKFB3 and PKM2 through the canonical Smad signal pathway as SMAD5 directly bound to the promoter of PKM. Collectively, our findings shown that BMP4 may play an important role in regulating glycolysis of HCC cells under hypoxia and hypoglycemia condition, indicating that novel therapeutics may be developed to target BMP4-regulated glucose metabolic reprogramming in HCC.
肝细胞癌(HCC)是全球癌症死亡的主要原因之一,尽管其致病机制仍有待充分了解。与正常细胞不同,大多数癌细胞依赖有氧糖酵解,并且对缺氧和低血糖的微环境更具适应性。骨形态发生蛋白4(BMP4)在调节HCC细胞的增殖、分化、侵袭和迁移中起重要作用。我们最近发现BMP4在调节葡萄糖代谢中起重要作用,尽管对BMP4对HCC葡萄糖代谢重编程的影响了解甚少。在本研究中,我们发现BMP4在HCC肿瘤组织以及对缺氧和低血糖耐受的HCC细胞系中高表达。机制上,我们证明BMP4通过促进糖酵解保护HCC细胞免受缺氧和低血糖的影响,因为BMP4上调了葡萄糖摄取、乳酸产生、ATP水平以及糖酵解限速酶(包括HK2、PFK和PK)的活性。此外,我们证明BMP4通过经典的Smad信号通路上调HK2、PFKFB3和PKM2,因为SMAD5直接与PKM的启动子结合。总的来说,我们的研究结果表明BMP4可能在缺氧和低血糖条件下调节HCC细胞的糖酵解中起重要作用,这表明可能开发新的疗法来靶向BMP4调节的HCC葡萄糖代谢重编程。