No abstract

Thyroid cancer can degrade basement membranes and invade tissues. This depends on a cascade of matrix metalloproteinases involving membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP), MMP-2, and MMP-9. We analyzed the expression and role of these MMPs and their specific inhibitors TIMP-2 and TIMP-3 in human highly purified thyroid epithelial, C 643, HTh 74, SW 1736, and 8505 C thyroid carcinoma and thyroid-derived fibroblast cell cultures. The effect of phorbol-myristate acetate (PMA), and of the inflammatory cytokines interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) on MMP and TIMP mRNA levels were monitored by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) including an internal homologous competitor fragment. The highest MT1-MMP mRNA levels were found in thyroid-derived fibroblasts. The MT1-MMP mRNA expression was increased up to 10-fold by PMA, while all other growth factors tested had only negligible effects. The thyroid carcinoma cells themselves did not seem to play a crucial role in the production of MT1-MMP in thyroid tumors. Higher MMP-2 mRNA levels were found in all cell types investigated. The highest MMP-2 mRNA levels were determined in thyroid-derived fibroblasts and HTh 74 cells. We found a lack of MMP-2 response to IL-1, TNF-alpha, and phorbol esters. In unstimulated cells, MMP-9 mRNA was found near the detection limit or at low levels. In nearly all cell types, treatment with PMA, IL-1, and TNF-alpha caused an increase of the MMP-9 mRNA levels. The results of basal and stimulated MMP-2 and MMP-9 mRNA expression were confirmed at the protein level by gelatin zymography. TIMP-2 and TIMP-3 mRNAs were expressed at high levels. In contrast to the basal TIMP-3 mRNA levels, which varied over a great range, there were no striking differences the cell types from analyzing TIMP-2 mRNA. There were no or only slight stimulatory effects on TIMP-2 and TIMP-3 mRNA expression by IL-1, TNF-alpha, and PMA. Taken together, most enzymes of the MT-MMP/MMP class of proteases facilitating invasion of thyroid tumor cells seem to have been produced by fibroblasts, not by the tumor cells themselves. However, some dedifferentiated thyroid tumor cell lines may be capable of secreting some of these enzymes, as in the case of HTh 74 cells.

DNA fragments used as standards in competitive PCR were precisely calibrated using HPLC and commercially available DNA molecular mass markers. The accuracy of calibration was reflected by data that differed by only 2% from the mean when two independently purified and calibrated competitor preparations were compared. Highly dilute competitor solutions were stable at -20 degrees C for up to 1 year in the presence of carrier HindIII-digested lambda DNA, but progressive loss of competitor DNA with increasing storage time was observed when carrier DNA was omitted from the solution. Applying 0.2 U uracil-DNA glycosylase (UDG) per assay of remaining temperature-stable activity did not effect the ratios of synthesized products. This study describes quality management in PCR quantitation that is useful for the measurement of multidrug resistance-associated protein (MRP) and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) gene transcripts.

Matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1) and tissue matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor 1 (TIMP-1) play an important role in remodeling the extracellular matrix in normal and pathological processes. The effect of phorbol-myristate acetate (PMA), interleukin-1 (IL-1), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) on MMP-1 and TIMP-1 expression was studied on highly purified thyrocytes and undifferentiated 8505 C, C 643, HTh 74, SW 1736 thyroid carcinoma cells compared with thyroid-derived fibroblasts. Messenger RNA (mRNA) levels were monitored by competitive semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) after 24 hours. Culture supernatants were assayed for free and/or complexed MMP-1 and TIMP-1 after 48 hours using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) systems (detection limit: <2 ng/mL). MMP-1 and TIMP-1 mRNA were present in all cell types, although thyrocytes showed MMP-1 mRNA levels near the detection limit. 8505 C expressed MMP-1 mRNA levels of up to 10(6) times those of the other cells analyzed. PMA and IL-1 increased MMP-1 mRNA in most cell types. TIMP-1 mRNA increased after treatment with PMA in all cells except 8505 C, whereas only slight effects were shown after IL-1 stimulation. MMP-1 protein was undetectable in normal thyrocyte cultures, but was secreted spontaneously by all cell lines ([ng/mL]; C 643: 15+/-7; HTh 74: 81+/-1; SW 1736: 13+/-2; 8505 C: 2097+/-320). There was a strong correlation between levels of MMP-1 mRNA and protein (r = 0.99, p < .0001). PMA and IL-1 increased MMP-1 secretion in all cell types after 48 hours. Fibroblasts ([ng/mL] 517+/-55) and the cell lines (C 643: 142+/-48; HTh 74: 115+/-13; SW 1736: 202+/-14; 8505C: 120+/-19) secreted TIMP-1 in unstimulated cultures, whereas only a trace amount was detected in thyrocyte cultures, even after PMA treatment. IL-1 upregulated TIMP-1 secretion after 48 hours in SW 1736, HTh 74, and C 643 cells. Our data suggest that in contrast to normal thyrocytes, dedifferentiated thyroid carcinoma cell lines are potential producers of MMP-1 as well as TIMP-1. High MMP-1 or MMP-1/TIMP-1 expression may play a role in tissue invasion of undifferentiated thyroid cancer cells.

of Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (86,[9717][9718][9719][9720][9721], the authors request that the following changes be noted. Ref. 30, shown below, should be inserted in lines 39 and 42 of the Introduction as follows: "A second approach is to generate an allelic variant (e.g., a small deletion or insertion in the gene of interest) such that there is a small difference in the size of the PCR product of this internal standard and the PCR product of the native mRNA (30). Creation of a restriction enzyme site in the target gene is another method that would permit distinction between the PCR products of the standard and target RNAs (30)."