© 2014. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd.
Metastatic ovarian cancer cell malignancy is increased on soft matrices through a mechanosensitive Rho/ROCK pathway Daniel J. McGrail,† Quang Minh N. Kieu,† and Michelle R. Dawson†‡ †
School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA ‡ The Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
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Running Title: Ovarian cancer mechanical tropism Keywords: Ovarian Cancer Metastasis, Mechanotransduction, Tissue tropism Corresponding author: Michelle Dawson, Ph.D. School of Chemical &Biomolecular Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology 311 Ferst Dr., N.W. Atlanta, GA 30332-0100 Office: (404) 894-5192 Email:
[email protected] Website: http://dawson.chbe.gatech.edu/ Conflicts of interest: The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Summary: 179 Words Manuscript: 3,100 Words, 4 Figures, 4 Supplemental Figures Authors’ Contributions: Conception and Design: D. McGrail, M. Dawson Acquisition of Data: D. McGrail, Q.M. Kieu Development of Methodology: D. McGrail Analysis and Interpretation of Data: D. McGrail Writing of the manuscript: D. McGrail, M. Dawson
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JCS Advance Online Article. Posted on 16 April 2014
SUMMARY Though current treatments for localized ovarian cancer are highly effective, it still remains the most lethal gynecological malignancy, largely in part to late detection after tumor cells leave the primary tumor. Clinicians have long noted a clear predilection for ovarian cancer metastasis to the soft omentum. Here, we show that this tropism is due not only to chemical signals but also
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mechanical cues. Metastatic ovarian cancer cells (OCCs) preferentially adhere to soft microenvironments and display an enhanced malignant phenotype including increased migration, proliferation, and chemoresistance. To understand the cell-matrix interactions used to sense the substrate rigidity, we utilized traction force microscopy and found that OCCs increased both the magnitude of traction forces as well as their degree of polarization. After culture on soft substrates, cells underwent morphological elongation characteristic of epithelial-mesenchymal transition, which was confirmed by molecular analysis. Consistent with the idea that mechanical cues are a key determinant in the spread of ovarian cancer, the observed mechanosensitivity was greatly decreased in less metastatic OCCs. Finally, we demonstrate that this mechanical tropism is governed through a Rho/ROCK signaling pathway.
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INTRODUCTION Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer deaths among women, largely because it is often diagnosed at late stages after metastasis with a 5 year survival rate of only 30% (Landen et al., 2008). In contrast to following the normal metastatic process of intravasation to the vascular system and extravasation at a distal site, ovarian cancer is more likely to disseminate through the
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intraperitoneal fluids. From there, it preferentially accumulates in soft tissues such as the adipocyte-rich omentum (Nieman et al., 2011). Previous work suggests this is because adipocytes act as a rich energy source and actively promote ovarian cancer cell homing via cytokines such as interleukin-8 (Nieman et al., 2011). However, these studies were based solely on chemical factors, whereas the burgeoning field of physical oncology has recently shown the mechanical environment a cell experiences can be of equal importance. For instance, pioneering studies by Weaver and colleagues demonstrated that increased matrix stiffness can induce a malignant phenotype in mammary epithelial cells by leading to increased Rho activation and actomyosin contractility (Paszek et al., 2005), with further studies directly implicating contractility in increasing matrix stiffness and cancer progression (Samuel et al., 2011). Though most of these studies linked increased matrix stiffness to tumor progression, breast cancer metastatic subclones with tropism for soft lung tissue in vivo exhibit growth advantages on soft substrates in vitro (Kostic et al., 2009). Based on these results, we hypothesized that the preferential accumulation of ovarian cancer cells in soft tissues may be due to intrinsic mechanical properties of the environment. To test this hypothesis, we utilized a series of biophysical and biochemical techniques to understand the response of ovarian cancer cells to a soft matrix similar to adipose tissue and a stiff matrix similar to tumor tissue (Samani et al., 2007; Tse and Engler, 2010) using both the 3
more metastatic SKOV-3 cell line and less metastatic OVCAR-3 cell line (Slack-Davis et al., 2009), both of which harbor either mutated or deleted p53 indicative of high grade serous ovarian carcinomas (Ali et al., 2012; Domcke et al., 2013; Salani et al., 2008). We found that ovarian cancer cells (OCCs) show increased adhesion on soft microenvironments. After engraftment, OCCs on soft matrices are more proliferative and resistant to standard
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chemotherapeutic drugs. In addition to these increases in growth, cells also displayed increased migratory capacity. Further immunocytochemistry and gene expression analysis revealed a shift from a more epithelial phenotype on stiff substrates to a more mesenchymal phenotype on soft matrices. Cell-matrix interactions were directly probed with traction force cytometry and revealed changes in both force magnitude and polarization on softer matrices. Moreover, use of small molecule modulators of the Rho/ROCK pathway demonstrates this signaling cascade plays a key role in determining this tissue tropism. This study reveals the previously undocumented role of mechanical cues in ovarian cancer metastasis which could lead to new methods to target metastatic disease.
MATERIALS AND METHODS Cell culture and substrate synthesis Ovarian carcinoma cells SKOV-3 and OVCAR-3 were cultured per manufacturer’s instructions. Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) acquired from TAMU were differentiated as described (McGrail et al., 2013) into adipocytes and osteoblasts (Fig. S1A). Polyacrylamide substrates (Tse and Engler, 2010) were coated with equal densities of Collagen I (Fig. S1B). Adhesion, proliferation, chemoresistance, and cell motility Cells labeled with CFSE (Biolegend) were allowed to adhere for two hours in HBSS with divalents before taking an initial florescence reading. A final reading was taken after removing 4
non-adherent cells by washing with HBSS to determine adherent fraction. Cell proliferation was quantified by cell number increase 48 hours after plating. Chemoresistance was quantified using a MTT assay on cells treated with 50 M carboplatin. All three parameters are reported relative to a collagen-coated glass control. For cell migration coefficient quantification, cells were imaged on an environmentally-controlled Nikon Eclipse Ti microscope and traces fit to the
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persistent random walk model (Dickinson and Tranquillo, 1993). Traction force microscopy Cell-induced displacements were used to determine traction forces as previously described (Sabass et al., 2008). To capture the traction forces of OVCAR-3 cells that grow in clumps and avoid inaccuracies arising from analyzing patches of cells, traction stress values are reported as the peak (95th percentile) of traction forces (Fig. S1C). Polarization was defined as the difference between the centroid of the cell and the force-weighted center of mass (Fig. 1Ea). Immunofluorescence and gene expression characterization Staining for cytokeratin was performed with anti-pan-cytokeratin (Biolegend) followed by incubation with rhodamine phalloidin and AlexaFluor 488 secondary (Invitrogen) before sealing with Vectashield with DAPI. Staining for pMLC was performed as described (Raab et al., 2012). Gene expression analysis normalized to 18s RNA are reported relative to collagen-coated glass (McGrail et al., 2013). Statistical Analysis All studies were performed in triplicate or and are reported mean ± SEM. Statistical analysis was carried out using a student’s t-test or ANOVA, considering p