A novel function for vimentin: the potential biomarker for predicting melanoma hematogenous metastasis

Abstract

BackgroundThe incidence of malignant melanoma (MM) was occurring at a faster rate than for most neoplasm worldwide, and melanoma metastasis is still the most formidable problem. So it is necessarily to find some biomarkers associated with melanoma metastasis.MethodsIn our study, 8 spontaneous lung metastatic mice models were created by B16F10 subcutaneously transplantation. The differential protein profiles of two kinds of subcutaneous transplanted tumor tissues, which was parental B16F10 (B16 group) and corresponding lung metastases (B16M group) were detected by two-dimensional differential in-gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) combined with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF/MS). Western blotting was used to validate the results, and the clinical significance of individual protein was detected furtherly in a set of human samples.ResultIn this study, thirty proteins were found to be differentially expressed (ratio > 2 or < -2, P < 0.01) and thirteen of them were identified by MS. Highly expressed proteins in B16M group included cytoskeleton/structure proteins (vimentin, gamma-actin, β-actin, laminin binding protein), the chaperone family of proteins (heavy-chain binding protein, Bip), immunoproteasome assembly (proteasome activator REG alpha) and others involved in glycolysis activity (PGK1, enolase, TPI, human skeletal muscle GAPDH) and protein transport (myoglobin). Vimentin was significantly up-regulated in B16M group compared with B16 group which was validated by western blotting. Immunohistochemistry was performed in a set of clinical samples, the results showed that over-expression of vimentin was frequently observed in primary melanoma patients with hematogenous metastasis (P < 0.05), not associated with lymph node metastasis (P > 0.05). The presence of TNM stage was a independent indicator of poor prognosis for melanoma patients (P = 0.004).ConclusionThe aberrant immunohistochemical expression of vimentin in primary melanoma tissues may help to call attention for patients with high risk of hematogenous metastasis. That might be as a novel metastatic indicator for melanoma. In a word, vimentin is not only the dignostic marker but also the hematogenous metastasis predictor for melanomas clinically.

Loss of Pannexin 1 Attenuates Melanoma Progression by Reversion to a Melanocytic Phenotype

“…Thus, Panx1 knockdown was not only causing a re-differentiation of the melanoma phenotype into a more melanocytic one, but it appeared to have changed the tumorigenic and metastatic properties of these cells. Vimentin has been identified as a useful biomarker for melanoma metastasis, as its overexpression is observed in patients with primary melanoma with hematogenous metastasis but not associated with metastasis to the lymph nodes (38). Vimentin has also been reported to regulate Hsc70, which is one of the heat shock cognate proteins that was also down-regulated in Panx1-reduced cells (39).…”

Epigenetic deregulation of miR-29a and miR-1256 by isoflavone contributes to the inhibition of prostate cancer cell growth and invasion

“…[21][22][23] Interestingly, the high expression of PGK-1 is significantly correlated with tumor progression, metastasis and multidrug resistance in various cancers. 21,22,[24][25][26] It has also been reported that the expression of PGK-1 in PCa cells could induce bone formation 27 and that cancer-associated fibroblasts, which showed strong expression of PGK-1, could promote PCa growth, 28 suggesting that PGK-1 plays important roles in PCa development, progression and bone metastasis. In addition, both PGK-1 and AR genes are located within Xqll-Xql3 region and PGK-1 short tandem repeat polymorphism linkage to AR in the expression of miR-29a has been found to be correlated with short survival, more invasive phenotype, and early recurrence.…”

Aberrant Vimentin Methylation Is Characteristic of Breast Cancer

“…Moreover, vimentin showed overexpression in pancreatic cancers and increased the invasive potential of pancreatic cancer cells [39] [40]. In addition, vimentin expression was shown to be elevated in aggressive breast cancer [41] primary malignant melanomas [42], CNS tumors [43]. Its overexpression in all these types of cancer was very well correlated with increased migration and invasion of cancer cells.…”