Ca. Staley et al., DECREASED TUMORIGENICITY OF A HUMAN COLON ADENOCARCINOMA CELL-LINE BYAN ANTISENSE EXPRESSION VECTOR SPECIFIC FOR C-SRC, Cell growth & differentiation, 8(3), 1997, pp. 269-274
In greater than 80% of colon tumors and established cell lines, the sp
ecific activities of the protein tyrosine kinases pp60(c-src) and pp62
(c-yes) are increased with respect to normal colonic epithelial cells.
However, no mutations in either gene have been identified in colon tu
mors. Therefore, the possible biological consequences of activations o
f these protein tyrosine kinases in colon tumors have been unclear. To
determine if pp60(c-src) activation affects growth and tumorigenicity
of established colon tumor cell lines, an antisense expression vector
that specifically reduces pp60(c-src) expression was constructed. The
vector was transfected into HT 29 cells, an established colon tumor c
ell line in which both pp60(c-src) and pp62(c-yes) are activated. Two
stable subclones were isolated in which pp60(c-src) but pp62(c-yes) ex
pression and activity were reduced. These established cell lines proli
ferated more slowly than parental cells proportionately to reduction i
n pp60(c-src) expression. When injected into nude mice, antisense tran
sfected cells formed slow-growing tumors; however, the rate of tumor g
rowth was reduced far greater than would be predicted from decreased p
roliferation rates in tissue culture. In contrast, stable subclones tr
ansfected with a comparable ''sense'' expression vector were unaltered
in growth rates in tissue culture and in nude mice with respect to pa
rental HT 29 cells. These data demonstrate that the activation of pp60
(c-src) alone contributes to the tumorigenicity of HT 29 cells, a cell
line widely used as a model for biological properties of colon carcin
oma. Furthermore, because pp60(c-src) and pp62(c-yes) appear redundant
to the growth regulation of normal colonic epithelial cells, the data
suggest that src-specific inhibitors might be of therapeutic value fo
r colon cancer.