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. 2017 Jun 15;36(24):3397-3405.
doi: 10.1038/onc.2016.326. Epub 2016 Nov 7.

Induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress by deletion of Grp78 depletes Apc mutant intestinal epithelial stem cells

Affiliations

Induction of endoplasmic reticulum stress by deletion of Grp78 depletes Apc mutant intestinal epithelial stem cells

J F van Lidth de Jeude et al. Oncogene. .

Abstract

Intestinal epithelial stem cells are highly sensitive to differentiation induced by endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Colorectal cancer develops from mutated intestinal epithelial stem cells. The most frequent initiating mutation occurs in Apc, which results in hyperactivated Wnt signalling. This causes hyperproliferation and reduced sensitivity to chemotherapy, but whether these mutated stem cells are sensitive to ER stress induced differentiation remains unknown. Here we examined this by generating mice in which both Apc and ER stress repressor chaperone Grp78 can be conditionally deleted from the intestinal epithelium. For molecular studies, we used intestinal organoids derived from these mice. Homozygous loss of Apc alone resulted in crypt elongation, activation of the Wnt signature and accumulation of intestinal epithelial stem cells, as expected. This phenotype was however completely rescued on activation of ER stress by additional deletion of Grp78. In these Apc-Grp78 double mutant animals, stem cells were rapidly lost and repopulation occurred by non-mutant cells that had escaped recombination, suggesting that Apc-Grp78 double mutant stem cells had lost self-renewal capacity. Although in Apc-Grp78 double mutant mice the Wnt signature was lost, these intestines exhibited ubiquitous epithelial presence of nuclear β-catenin. This suggests that ER stress interferes with Wnt signalling downstream of nuclear β-catenin. In conclusion, our findings indicate that ER stress signalling results in loss of Apc mutated intestinal epithelial stem cells by interference with the Wnt signature. In contrast to many known inhibitors of Wnt signalling, ER stress acts downstream of β-catenin. Therefore, ER stress poses a promising target in colorectal cancers, which develop as a result of Wnt activating mutations.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
ER stress signalling represses the Wnt signalling signature in vitro. (a) Relative mRNA levels of a panel of Wnt target-genes from mRNA expression arrays of LS174T cells on 20 h treatment with SubAB (200 ng/ml) or the enzymatically inactive SubAA272B as a control. Values are extracted from mRNA micro-array. (b) GSEA of Wnt signalling pathway target-genes on LS174T cells that were treated with either SubAB or SubAA272B. (c) mRNA expression in Apcfl/fl(IEC) organoids that were either treated with vehicle (veh) or 4OHT for 24 h followed by either 200 ng/ml SubAB or SubAA272B treatment for 20 h. *P<0.05, ***P<0.001.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Induction of ER stress by loss of Grp78 causes Apc−/−Grp78−/− (IEC) crypts to resemble Grp78− /− (IEC) crypts. (a) Haematoxylin and eosin staining on representative small intestinal sections of animals of indicated genotypes on day 3 after tamoxifen injections. Arrows depict a representative morphometric measurement. (b) Relative crypt length of animals of indicated genotype. (c) Grp78 staining on small intestinal sections of animals of indicated genotypes. (d) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of Apc and Grp78 from intestinal epithelial fractions. (e) BrdU staining on small intestinal sections of animals of indicated genotypes. (f) Quantification of BrdU-positive cells per crypt. (g) Cleaved caspase-3 staining on representative small intestinal sections of animals of indicated genotypes. (h) Quantification of cleaved caspase-3-positive cells in either crypts or villi. Quantifications were performed in 30 crypts per animal, N = 5 animals per genotype. Magnifications × 200. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Loss of Grp78 in Apc mutant epithelium dampens the increased expression of Wnt signalling target-genes. (a) Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of Apc and Grp78 on either non-recombined organoids (control) or recombined organoids carrying the indicated genotypes. (b) Recombination efficiency of LacZ reporter allele assessed in organoids by X-gal staining. (c) Quantitative RT-PCR of a panel of markers of ER stress and activation of the UPR. (d) Quantitative RT-PCR of a panel of Wnt signalling pathway target-genes. (e) CD44 staining on representative small intestinal sections of animals of indicated genotypes. Magnifications × 100 for organoids and × 200 for intestinal sections. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, ***P<0.001.
Figure 4.
Figure 4.
Loss of Grp78 results in loss of intestinal epithelial stem cells regardless of Apc status. (a) In situ hybridisation for Olfm4 in mice of indicated genotypes (b) Quantitative RT-PCR on recombined organoids with indicated genotypes and non-recombined organoids (control) for stem cell markers Olfm4 and Lgr5. (c) Quantitative RT-PCR of a panel of alternative stem cell markers. **P<0.01, ***P<0.001. Magnifications × 200.
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Maintenance of nuclear β-catenin in Apc− /−Grp78−/− (IEC) mice. (a) β-catenin staining on small intestinal sections of animals of indicated genotypes. (b) Grp78 staining on consecutive slides. Magnifications × 200, zoom × 400.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Loss of Grp78 results in loss of c-Myc regardless of Apc status. (a) c-Myc staining on representative small intestinal sections of animals of indicated genotypes. Magnifications × 200. (b) Quantitative RT-PCR for c-Myc on organoids of indicated genotypes. **P<0.01, ***P<0.001.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Rapid repopulation of the Apc− /−Grp78−/− (IEC) epithelium by wild-type cells. (a) Ex vivo culture of organoids from indicated genotypes at indicated time points. (b) Immunohistochemical detection of Grp78 on indicated time points in Apc−/−Grp78− /− (IEC) mice. (c) Relative expression of Grp78 mRNA in epithelium derived from indicated mice, detected by quantitative RT-PCR, reflecting presence of wild-type cells. N = 5. Magnifications × 200. *P<0.05, **P<0.01.

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