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Differential expression of inflammasomes in lung cancer cell lines and tissues

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Tumor Biology

Abstract

As pivotal elements involved in inflammation, inflammasomes represent a group of multiprotein complexes triggering the maturation of proinflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18. Although the importance of the inflammasomes in inflammatory diseases is well appreciated, a precise characterization of their expressions in lung cancer remains obscure. This study aimed to determine the expressions of inflammasomes in various lung cancer cell lines and tissues to understand their potential roles in lung cancer. Our findings showed that inflammasome components were markedly upregulated in lung cancer and elicited the maturation of IL-1β and IL-18. In addition, enormous variations in subtypes and levels of inflammasomes were detected in lung cancers depending on their histological type and grading, invasion ability, as well as chemoresistance. Generally, AIM2 inflammasome was overexpressed in nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), while NLRP3 inflammasome was upregulated in lung adenocarcinoma (ADC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). The high-metastatic or cisplatin-sensitive NSCLC cells expressed more inflammasome components and products than their counterpart low-metastatic or cisplatin-resistant NSCLC cells, respectively. In resected lung cancer tissues, high-grade ADC expressed more inflammasome components and products than low-grade ADC. Together, these findings suggest that inflammasomes may be crucial biomarkers for lung cancer as well as potential modulators of the biological behaviors of lung cancer. Further, pharmacotherapeutics targeting inflammasomes might be novel adjuvant therapy strategies for lung cancer.

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Abbreviations

IL:

Interleukin

NSCLC:

Nonsmall cell lung cancer

SCLC:

Small cell lung cancer

ADC:

Adenocarcinoma

SCC:

Squamous cell carcinoma

LCC:

Large cell carcinoma

NOD:

Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain

NLR:

Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor

ASC:

Apoptosis-associated speck-like protein containing a Card domain

AIM2:

Absent in melanoma 2

qRT-PCR:

Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction

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Acknowledgments

We thank Professor Ming Li (University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE) for improving the English of the manuscript. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 81001427, 81273571), National Technological Special Project for “Significant New Drugs Development” (2011ZX09302-003-02), Jiangsu Province Special Program of Medical Science (BL2012012), and a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

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    1. Department of Respiratory Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210029, Jiangsu, China

      Hui Kong, Yanli Wang, Xiaoning Zeng, Zailiang Wang, Hong Wang & Weiping Xie

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    1. Hui Kong
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    2. Yanli Wang
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    3. Xiaoning Zeng
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    Correspondence to Hong Wang or Weiping Xie.

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    Hui Kong and Yanli Wang contributed equally to this work.

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    Kong, H., Wang, Y., Zeng, X. et al. Differential expression of inflammasomes in lung cancer cell lines and tissues. Tumor Biol. 36, 7501–7513 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13277-015-3473-4

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