Sexual dimorphism of STGC3 tumor suppressor function in nasopharyngeal carcinoma CNE2 cells

Genet Mol Res. 2012 Dec 19;11(4):4585-97. doi: 10.4238/2012.October.9.9.

Abstract

STGC3 is a potential tumor suppressor in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. We previously found that CNE2 cells that re-expressed STGC3 formed smaller tumors in female mice than in male mice. Here, we investigated the sexual dimorphism of STGC3 as a tumor-suppressor in female and male nude mice injected subcutaneously with pcDNA3.1(+)-STGC3/CNE2 cells. ER-α was positively expressed in vitro in the CNE2 cells. The pcDNA3.1(+)-STGC3/CNE2 cell growth rate decreased after treatment with β-estradiol in vitro. There were significant differences in tumor size or mass between pcDNA3.1(+)-STGC3/CNE2 and control cases (P < 0.05), but there were significant differences in tumor size between female and male nude mice in the STGC3 transfection groups, and the pcDNA3.1(+)-STGC3/CNE2 tumor growth rate in the female nude mice was the lowest in all cases (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences between female and male nude mice in control groups. Furthermore, a greater number of cells were blocked in the G(0)/G(1) phase in pcDNA3.1(+)-STGC3/ CNE2 tumor xenografts in the female mice. Protemic analysis found 9 differentially expressed proteins in the pcDNA3.1-STGC3/CNE2 xenograft tissues in females and males. A heat shock 70 protein 8 isoform 2 variant was identified as a down-regulated protein associated with cell cycle control and its downstream factor cyclin D1 was also decreased in STGC3-repressed xenografts in female mice. The data above suggest that STGC3 and its associated proteins play an important role in nasopharyngeal carcinoma gender differences.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Carcinoma / metabolism
  • Carcinoma / pathology*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cyclin D1 / metabolism
  • Estradiol / physiology
  • Estrogen Receptor alpha / metabolism
  • Female
  • Genes, Tumor Suppressor*
  • HSC70 Heat-Shock Proteins / metabolism
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Mice, Nude
  • Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma
  • Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Neoplasm Transplantation
  • Proteins / genetics*
  • Proteins / metabolism
  • Proteins / physiology
  • Resting Phase, Cell Cycle
  • Sex Characteristics
  • Sex Factors
  • Transcriptome
  • Tumor Burden

Substances

  • CCND1 protein, human
  • ESR1 protein, human
  • Estrogen Receptor alpha
  • HSC70 Heat-Shock Proteins
  • HSPA8 protein, human
  • Proteins
  • STGC3 protein, human
  • Cyclin D1
  • Estradiol