The direct effect of focal adhesion kinase (FAK), dominant-negative FAK, FAK-CD and FAK siRNA on gene expression and human MCF-7 breast cancer cell tumorigenesis

BMC Cancer. 2009 Aug 12:9:280. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-9-280.

Abstract

Background: Focal adhesion kinase (FAK) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase that plays an important role in survival signaling. FAK has been shown to be overexpressed in breast cancer tumors at early stages of tumorigenesis.

Methods: To study the direct effect of FAK on breast tumorigenesis, we developed Tet-ON (tetracycline-inducible) system of MCF-7 breast cancer cells stably transfected with FAK or dominant-negative, C-terminal domain of FAK (FAK-CD), and also FAKsiRNA with silenced FAK MCF-7 stable cell line. Increased expression of FAK in isogenic Tet-inducible MCF-7 cells caused increased cell growth, adhesion and soft agar colony formation in vitro, while expression of dominant-negative FAK inhibitor caused inhibition of these cellular processes. To study the role of induced FAK and FAK-CD in vivo, we inoculated these Tet-inducible cells in nude mice to generate tumors in the presence or absence of doxycycline in the drinking water. FAKsiRNA-MCF-7 cells were also injected into nude mice to generate xenograft tumors.

Results: Induction of FAK resulted in significant increased tumorigenesis, while induced FAK-CD resulted in decreased tumorigenesis. Taq Man Low Density Array assay demonstrated specific induction of FAKmRNA in MCF-7-Tet-ON-FAK cells. DMP1, encoding cyclin D binding myb-like protein 1 was one of the genes specifically affected by Tet-inducible FAK or FAK-CD in breast xenograft tumors. In addition, silencing of FAK in MCF-7 cells with FAK siRNA caused increased cell rounding, decreased cell viability in vitro and inhibited tumorigenesis in vivo. Importantly, Affymetrix microarray gene profiling analysis using Human Genome U133A GeneChips revealed >4300 genes, known to be involved in apoptosis, cell cycle, and adhesion that were significantly down- or up-regulated (p < 0.05) by FAKsiRNA.

Conclusion: Thus, these data for the first time demonstrate the direct effect of FAK expression and function on MCF-7 breast cancer tumorigenesis in vivo and reveal specific expression of genes affected by silencing of FAK.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Antineoplastic Agents / pharmacology
  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Doxycycline / pharmacology
  • Female
  • Focal Adhesion Kinase 1 / genetics*
  • Focal Adhesion Kinase 1 / metabolism*
  • Genome, Human
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, Nude
  • Neoplasm Transplantation
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
  • RNA, Small Interfering / metabolism*
  • Transfection

Substances

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • RNA, Small Interfering
  • Focal Adhesion Kinase 1
  • Doxycycline