Journal: Cancer Research Communications
Article Title: Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition and Stress Adaptations Underlie Yttrium-90 Resistance in Liver Cancer Cell Lines
doi: 10.1158/2767-9764.CRC-25-0627
Figure Lengend Snippet: EMT and adhesion pathways associated with 90 Y resistance. A, EN regression analysis identified 18 protein-encoding genes with nonzero coefficients for which expression was correlated with 90 Y resistance across all cell lines at baseline (EN score >0.7). Among these, ITGA3 (EN = 0.911, R = 0.79) encodes the α subunit of the α3β1 integrin heterodimer, previously reported to influence HCC tumor progression and immune checkpoint expression. B, Differential expression analysis of RNA expression between 90 Y-resistant (SK-Hep1, SNU-449, SNU-475, SNU-387, and SNU-423) and -sensitive (PLC/PRF/5, Hep3B, and HepG2) cell lines. Groupings defined a priori by nAUC Z -scores and baseline PCA. Volcano plot of log 2 FC vs. −log 10 P value (FDR adjusted) of genes upregulated (red) and downregulated (blue) in 90 Y-resistant vs. -sensitive cell lines. Genes involved in the extracellular matrix ( ITGA3 ) and cancer stemness ( CD44 ) were significantly upregulated in 90 Y-resistant cell lines. C, GSEA of Hallmark pathways demonstrates strong upregulation of the EMT pathway in 90 Y-resistant cell lines (mean log FC 8.9), which contains CD44 and ITGB1 , the counterpart of ITGA3 in the a3b1 integrin heterodimer. Numbers next to each gene set bar represent FDR. D, Consistent with Hallmark EMT enrichment, KEGG and Reactome pathways associated with extracellular matrix and integrin cell surface interactions are enriched in resistant cell lines. E, qPCR (mean log 2 FC, error bars represent SEM, with n = 2 biological replicates) and Western blot validation of ITGA3/a3b1 and CD44 confirming elevated expression of these genes in the most 90 Y-resistant (SK-Hep1) vs. 90 Y-sensitive (PLC/PRF/5) and intermediate (SNU-398) cell lines, consistent with an EMT/adhesion phenotype associated with 90 Y resistance. F, qPCR of tumor vs. normal CD44 expression demonstrates a trend toward higher CD44 expression in those with IR or OFP ( n = 5) vs. SR ( n = 12), although not powered for statistical significance ( P = 0.43 Mann–Whitney). Color circle indicates treatment intent: blue, radiation segmentectomy; orange, multicompartment dosimetry (MCD) with TAD > 205 Gy. MIRD, medical internal radiation dose. Relative expression from qPCR data = 2 −(Cttarget − Cthousekeeping) , in which Ct is the detection crossing threshold.
Article Snippet: The following human liver cancer cell lines were obtained from the ATCC: SK-Hep1 (RRID: CVCL_0525), Hep-3B2 (RRID: CVCL_0326), HepG2/C3A (RRID: CVCL_1098), PLC/PRF/5 (RRID: CVCL_0485), SNU-387 (RRID: CVCL_0250), SNU-423 (RRID: CVCL_0366), SNU-449 (RRID: CVCL_0454), and SNU-475 (RRID: CVCL_0497).
Techniques: Expressing, Quantitative Proteomics, RNA Expression, Western Blot, Biomarker Discovery, MANN-WHITNEY