Hydrogen peroxide mediates vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression from interleukin-18-activated hepatic sinusoidal endothelium: Implications for circulating cancer cell arrest in the murine liver
L. Mendoza et al., Hydrogen peroxide mediates vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 expression from interleukin-18-activated hepatic sinusoidal endothelium: Implications for circulating cancer cell arrest in the murine liver, HEPATOLOGY, 34(2), 2001, pp. 298-310
The mechanism of intrasinusoidal arrest of circulating cancer cells, which
is a critical step in liver metastasis, appears to be facilitated by tumor-
derived proinflammatory factors that increase sinusoidal cell adhesion rece
ptors for cancer cells. However, how this prometastatic microenvironment is
up-regulated remains unknown. Using intrasplenically injected B16 melanoma
(B16M) cells, we show that the expression of vascular cell adhesion molecu
le-1 (VCAM-1) significantly increased in hepatic sinusoidal endothelium (HS
E) cells over physiologic baseline within the first 24 hours of metastatic
cancer cell infiltration in the liver. This correlated with increased in vi
tro adhesion of B16M cells to HSE cells isolated from B16M cell-injected mi
ce. In vivo VCAM-1 blockade with specific antibodies before B16M cell injec
tion decreased sinusoidal retention of luciferase-transfected B16M cells by
85%, and metastasis development by 75%, indicating that VCAM-1 expression
on tumor-activated HSE cells had a prometastatic contribution. Because VCAM
-1 expression is oxidative stress-inducible, recombinant catalase was in vi
vo administered, resulting in a complete abrogation of both VCAM-1 expressi
on and B16M cell adhesion increases in HSE cells isolated from B16M cell-in
jected mice. Catalase also abrogated the proadhesive response of HSE cells
to B16M-conditioned medium (B16M-CM) in vitro, although this did not affect
the concomitant release of major proinflammatory cytokines by HSE cells. H
SE cells treated with B16M-CM released interleukin (IL)-18 via tumor necros
is factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)- dependent IL-1 beta in vitro. In turn, H2O2 pr
oduction from B16M-CM-treated HSE cells was regulated by IL-18. Thus, liver
-infiltrating B16M cells activated their adhesion to HSE through a sequenti
al process involving TNF-alpha -dependent IL-1 beta, which induced IL-18 to
up-regulate VCAM-1 via H2O2. The pivotal position of H2O2 was further supp
orted by the fact that incubation of HSE cells with nontoxic concentrations
of H2O2 directly enhanced VCAM-1-dependent B16M cell adhesion in vitro wit
hout proinflammatory cytokine mediation, which emphasizes the key role of o
xidative stress in the pathogenesis of liver inflammation and metastasis.