E-cadherin might be a stage-dependent modulator in aggressiveness in pancreatic cancer cells

Esra Aydemİr Çoban; Didem Tecİmel; Ezgi KaŞikci; Ömer Faruk Bayrak; Fikrettin Şahİn

doi:10.3906/biy-1912-60

E-cadherin might be a stage-dependent modulator in aggressiveness in pancreatic cancer cells

Turk J Biol. 2020 Oct 13;44(5):230-237. doi: 10.3906/biy-1912-60. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Esra Aydemİr Çoban¹, Didem Tecİmel^{1

2}, Ezgi KaŞikci^{1

3}, Ömer Faruk Bayrak^{1

2}, Fikrettin Şahİn¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics and Bioengineering, Engineering Faculty, Yeditepe University, İstanbul Turkey.
² Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Yeditepe University, Yeditepe University Hospital, İstanbul Turkey.
³ Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY USA.

Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) pathology is known for its uncontrollable progress due to highly invasive characteristics and refractory behavior against existing chemotherapies. The aberrant expression of CDH1 (expresses the protein E-cadherin) is associated with increased overall survival in various cancers, however, E-cadherin expression in PDAC progression has remained elusive. We investigated the impact of exogenously elevated E-cadherin levels on the tumorigenicity of transduced low grade and metastatic PDAC cell lines, Panc-1 and AsPC-1, respectively. Constitutive expression of E-cadherin promoted a more hybrid E/M state in AsPC-1 cells, while it was associated with the acquisition of a more epithelial-like state in Panc1 cells. Our study suggests that E-cadherin may play differential roles in determining the metastatic characteristics of primary and metastatic pancreatic cancer cells.

Keywords: AsPC1; CRISPR/dCas9 activation; E-cadherin; Panc-1; pancreas cancer.