Loss of WNT-TCF addiction and enhancement of HH-GLI1 signalling define the metastatic transition of human colon carcinomas.

ABSTRACT: Previous studies demonstrate the initiation of colon cancers through deregulation of WNT-TCF signalling. An accepted but untested extension of this finding is that incurable metastatic colon carcinomas (CCs) universally remain WNT-TCF-dependent, prompting the search for WNT-TCF inhibitors. CCs and their stem cells also require Hedgehog (HH)-GLI1 activity, but how these pathways interact is unclear. Here we define coincident high-to-low WNT-TCF and low-to-high HH-GLI transitions in patient CCs, most strikingly in their CD133(+) stem cells, that mark the development of metastases. We find that enhanced HH-GLI mimics this transition, driving also an embryonic stem (ES)-like stemness signature and that GLI1 can be regulated by multiple CC oncogenes. The data support a model in which the metast

SUBMITTER: Varnat F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3394505 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature