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Carcinogenesis Advance Access published online on June 11, 2009
Carcinogenesis, doi:10.1093/carcin/bgp137
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Overexpression of MUC15 Activates Extracellular Signal–Regulated Kinase 1/2 and Promotes the Oncogenic Potential of Human Colon Cancer Cells

John Huang1,5, Mei-Ieng Che4, Yu-Ting Huang4, Ming-Kwang Shyu3, Yu-Ming Huang4, Yao-Ming Wu1, Wei-Chou Lin2, Pei-Hsin Huang2, Jin-Tung Liang1, Po-Huang Lee1 and Min-Chuan Huang4,*

1 Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan
2 Department of Pathology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan
3 Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan
4 Graduate Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 100, Taiwan
5 Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei 100, Taiwan

* Correspondence: Dr. Min-Chuan Huang, Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, No. 1, Sec. 1 Jen-Ai Road, Taipei 100, Taiwan. Phone: 886-2-23123456, ext. 88177; Fax: 886-2-23915292; E-mail: mchuang{at}ntu.edu.tw

Mucins play a key role in tumorigenesis. MUC15 is a membrane-bound mucin and the MUC15 mRNA has been detected in various organs. However, its role in tumor malignancy is still unclear. This study was to investigate the MUC15 expression in colorectal tumors and the role of MUC15 in colon cancer cells. We found that the mRNA expression of MUC15 was significantly higher in 70.8% (51/72) of colorectal tumors compared with their normal counterparts by real-time RT-PCR. Immunohistochemistry showed that MUC15 expression was increased in 82.6% (43/52) of colorectal tumors. MUC15 overexpression in HCT116 cells enhanced cell proliferation, cell-extracellular matrix adhesion, colony-forming ability, and invasion. Furthermore, these effects were significantly reversed by knockdown of MUC15 with short-hairpin RNA (shRNA). In nude mice models, MUC15 overexpression significantly (P < 0.01) enhanced tumor growth. In addition, treatment of PD98059 significantly (P < 0.01) inhibited MUC15-enhanced invasion, suggesting that the invasion induced by MUC15 in HCT116 cells was primarily mediated through activation of Extracellular Signal–Regulated Kinase (ERK) 1/2. In conclusion, these results suggest that MUC15 is up-regulated in colorectal tumors and its expression enhances the oncogenic potential of colon cancer cells.

Key Words: mucin • colon cancer • adhesion • invasion • MAPK

Received January 31, 2009; revised May 24, 2009; accepted May 26, 2009.


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