Journal Article

Circulating Tumor Cells from Prostate Cancer Patients Interact with E-Selectin under Physiologic Blood Flow

Geng, Yue, Liu, He, Lee, Guang Yu, Giannakakou, Paraskevi, King, Michael R., Bander, Neil H., Navarro, Vicente N., Christos, Paul J., Jurish, Madelyn, Akhtar, Naveed H., Nanus, David M., Gakhar, Gunjan, Tagawa, Scott T., Seandel, Marco

2013

Overview

Hematogenous metastasis accounts for the majority of cancer-related deaths, yet the mechanism remains unclear. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood may employ different pathways to cross blood endothelial barrier and establish a metastatic niche. Several studies provide evidence that prostate cancer (PCa) cell tethering and rolling on microvascular endothelium via E-selectin/E-selectin ligand interactions under shear flow theoretically promote extravasation and contribute to the development of metastases. However, it is unknown if CTCs from PCa patients interact with E-selectin expressed on endothelium, initiating a route for tumor metastases. Here we report that CTCs derived from PCa patients showed interactions with E-selectin and E-selectin expressing endothelial cells. To examine E-selectin-mediated interactions of PCa cell lines and CTCs derived from metastatic PCa patients, we used fluorescently-labeled anti-prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) monoclonal antibody J591-488 which is internalized following cell-surface binding. We employed a microscale flow device consisting of E-selectin-coated microtubes and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) on parallel-plate flow chamber simulating vascular endothelium. We observed that J591-488 did not significantly alter the rolling behavior in PCa cells at shear stresses below 3 dyn/cm(2). CTCs obtained from 31 PCa patient samples showed that CTCs tether and stably interact with E-selectin and E-selectin expressing HUVECs at physiological shear stress. Interestingly, samples collected during disease progression demonstrated significantly more CTC/E-selectin interactions than samples during times of therapeutic response (p=0.016). Analysis of the expression of sialyl Lewis X (sLe(x)) in patient samples showed that a small subset comprising 1.9-18.8% of CTCs possess high sLe(x) expression. Furthermore, E-selectin-mediated interactions between prostate CTCs and HUVECs were diminished in the presence of anti-E-selectin neutralizing antibody. CTC-Endothelial interactions provide a novel insight into potential adhesive mechanisms of prostate CTCs as a means to initiate metastasis.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Androgens / Antigens / Biomedical engineering / Blood / Blood circulation / Blood flow / Blood Flow Velocity / Cancer / Cancer metastasis / Cell adhesion & migration / Cell Line / Cell surface / Clinics / Colorectal cancer / E-selectin / E-Selectin - metabolism / Endothelial cells / Endothelium / Extravasation / Flow / Flow chambers / Hematology / Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells - metabolism / Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells - pathology / Humans / Ligands / Male / Medicine / Metastases / Metastasis / Microvasculature / Monoclonal antibodies / Neoplasm Metastasis / Neoplasm Proteins - metabolism / Neoplastic Cells, Circulating - metabolism / Neoplastic Cells, Circulating - pathology / Oncology / Parallel plate flow cells / Patients / Physiology / Prostate / Prostate cancer / Prostatic Neoplasms - metabolism / Prostatic Neoplasms - pathology / Shear flow / Shear stress / Stress, Physiological / Tethering / Tumor cells / Tumors / Umbilical vein / Urology