doi:10.1369/jhc.6A7133.2006
Volume 55 (4): 347-353, 2007 Copyright ©The Histochemical Society, Inc. Increased Expression of the Collagen Internalization Receptor uPARAP/Endo180 in the Stroma of Head and Neck Cancer
Oral & Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland (JS,RAW-M,JS,AM,THB), and Finsen Laboratory, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark (DHM,LHE,NB) Correspondence to: Thomas H. Bugge, PhD, Proteases and Tissue Remodeling Unit, Oral & Pharyngeal Cancer Branch, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, 30 Convent Drive, Room 211, Bethesda, MD 20892. E-mail: thomas.bugge{at}nih.gov
Local growth, invasion, and metastasis of malignancies of the head and neck involve extensive degradation and remodeling of the underlying, collagen-rich connective tissue. Urokinase plasminogen activator receptor-associated protein (uPARAP)/Endo180 is an endocytic receptor recently shown to play a critical role in the uptake and intracellular degradation of collagen by mesenchymal cells. As a step toward determining the putative function of uPARAP/Endo180 in head and neck cancer progression, we used immunohistochemistry to determine the expression of this collagen internalization receptor in 112 human squamous cell carcinomas and 19 normal or tumor-adjacent head and neck tissue samples from the tongue, gingiva, cheek, tonsils, palate, floor of mouth, larynx, maxillary sinus, upper jaw, nasopharynx/nasal cavity, and lymph nodes. Specificity of detection was verified by staining of serial sections with two different monoclonal antibodies against two non-overlapping epitopes on uPARAP/Endo180 and by the use of isotype-matched non-immune antibodies. uPARAP/Endo180 expression was observed in stromal fibroblast-like, vimentin-positive cells. Furthermore, expression of the collagen internalization receptor was increased in tumor stroma compared with tumor-adjacent connective tissue or normal submucosal connective tissue and was most prominent in poorly differentiated tumors. These data suggest that uPARAP/Endo180 participates in the connective tissue destruction during head and neck squamous cell carcinoma progression by mediating cellular uptake and lysosomal degradation of collagen. (J Histochem Cytochem 55:347353, 2007)
Key Words: collagen degradation Endo180 head and neck cancer invasion squamous cell carcinoma urokinase plasminogen activator receptor-associated protein
DEGRADATION OF COLLAGEN-RICH extracellular matrix (ECM) is believed to be essential for the dissemination of malignancies of the head and neck from the site of origin to local and distant anatomic sites. In addition to clearing a path for malignant cells, ECM degradation liberates latent tumor growth factors embedded within the ECM, enables the formation of a neovasculature within the expanding tumor mass, and subverts the proliferative restrictions imposed on tumor cells by ECM confinement (Hotary et al. 2003
Urokinase plasminogen activator receptor-associated protein (uPARAP)/Endo180 is a recently identified member of the macrophage mannose receptor family of endocytic transmembrane glycoproteins (Behrendt et al. 2000 In this study we investigated the expression of uPARAP/Endo180 in a panel of human head and neck squamous cell carcinomas presenting at a wide spectrum of anatomic locations and representing different histological grades. We report that stromal expression of uPARAP/Endo180 is a consistent feature of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, suggesting that intracellular collagen degradation contributes to the devastating connective tissue destruction associated with this disease.
Tissue Samples The "OR601, Oral squamous cancer tissue array with normal oral control tissue" (http://www.biomax.us/tissue-arrays/Oral/OR601) was obtained from US Biomax, Inc. (Rockville, MD). The "CC34-01-001, Head and neck squamous carcinoma (multisites, grade I III) tissue array (http://www.cybrdi.com/viewproduct.php) was obtained from Cybrdi Inc. (Frederick, MD). Additionally, 49 oral squamous cell carcinomas were obtained from the Oral & Pharyngeal Cancer Branch Tissue Repository, National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, Bethesda, MD.
Generation of Monoclonal Antibodies
Western Blotting
Immunohistochemistry
Evaluation of Staining Intensities and Statistical Analysis
Two-tailed
uPARAP/Endo180 expression was studied by immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis of a panel of human squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck area, as well as a number of tumor-adjacent head and neck and normal head and neck tissues. The combined material successfully analyzed included 112 squamous cell carcinomas derived from the tongue (n=39), gingiva (n=15), larynx (n=8), cheek (n=9), tonsils (n=4), nasopharynx/nasal cavity (n=4), palatal surface of maxilla and mandible (n=7), lymph node metastases (n=2), maxillary sinus (n=2), ethmoid sinus (n=1), or from an unknown location in the oral cavity (n=21). The normal or tumor-adjacent tissues analyzed included tongue (n=11), gingiva (n=5), palate (n=1), cheek (n=1), or from an unknown location in the oral cavity (n=1). The material was derived from the Biomax array (43 tumor samples and 13 normal or tumor-adjacent samples) and the Cybrdi array (20 tumor samples in triplicate and six normal or tumor-adjacent samples in duplicate), and 49 oral squamous cell carcinomas from the Oral & Pharyngeal Cancer Branch Tissue Repository. For IHC analysis, we used mouse MAbs (2.h.9:F12 and 5.f.4:D7) that recognize species-conserved, non-overlapping epitopes on uPARAP/Endo180 (unpublished data). Both MAbs were specific for uPARAP/Endo180, as demonstrated by Western blotting (Figure 1 ). Thus, in protein extracts of human U937 cells, which are known to express uPARAP/Endo180 (Behrendt et al. 2000
To validate the use of the MAbs for detection of uPARAP/Endo180 in tissue sections, we first performed IHC of serial sections from 17 randomly selected tumors. This analysis, which included well-differentiated, moderately differentially, and poorly differentiated tumors, showed that the two MAbs displayed an identical staining pattern, presenting a predominantly granular polarized intracellular and cell surface staining of a subset of stromal cells with fibroblast-like morphology, compatible with the distribution of an endocytic receptor (compare representative examples in Figures 2B and 2F, Figures 2C and 2G, and Figures 2D and 2H). Furthermore, no stromal staining was observed when substituting the uPARAP/Endo180 MAbs with a non-immune, isotype-matched IgG (Figures 2J2L). No, or very little, staining was observed in normal or tumor-adjacent submucosal connective tissue, suggesting a specific upregulation of uPARAP/Endo180 in oral cancer stroma (Figures 2A and 2E).
Immunostaining of serial sections of the tumors using the uPARAP/Endo180 MAbs and an antibody against the mesenchymal cell marker, vimentin, was performed next to verify that uPARAP/Endo180 was specifically located in stromal cells of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (Figure 3 ). This analysis showed that uPARAP/Endo180-positive cells also stained strongly positive for vimentin, providing positive identification of uPARAP/Endo-180-positive cells as stromal fibroblast-like cells (compare Figure 3A with Figure 3B and Figure 3D with Figure 3E). Together this analysis showed that uPARAP/Endo180 could be specifically detected by IHC of paraffin-fixed, archived tissues. The 2.h.9:F12 MAb was used for further studies of uPARAP/Endo180 expression, and staining of serial sections with isotype-matched, non-immune antibodies was included as a negative control in all sections analyzed. Infrequent ambiguous staining (2/112 tumors) was resolved by the staining of parallel sections by MAb 5.f.4:D7. The intensity of stromal immunostaining was estimated for all samples using an arbitrary scale from 0 to 4, as described in Materials and Methods.
Comparison of 43 squamous cell carcinomas and 13 normal head and neck tissues represented on the Biomax tissue array showed increased expression of uPARAP/Endo180 in tumor stroma compared with normal or tumor-adjacent submucosal connective tissue (Figure 4A ). The frequency of uPARAP/Endo180-positive tumor samples (defined as having a score of 1 or higher) was 29/43 (67%), as opposed to 4/13 (31%) of normal or tumor-adjacent samples (p<0.025). Likewise, intensity of stromal uPARAP/Endo180 staining was significantly increased in tumor stroma compared with normal or tumor-adjacent submucosal connective tissue with a median intensity score of 1 (range 03) for tumors compared with a median intensity score of 0 (range 01) for normal tissue (p<0.0012). The identical trend was observed after analysis of tumors represented on the Cybrdi tissue array, although statistical significance was not obtained (Figure 3B). With this array, the frequency of uPARAP/Endo180-positive tumor samples was 15/20 (75%) as opposed to 2/6 (33%) of normal or tumor-adjacent samples (p<0.1). The median intensity score of the tumor stroma was 0.3 (range 00.7), compared with 0 (range 01) for normal or tumor-adjacent samples (p=0.29).
Inspection of the staining intensity of tumor samples represented on the Biomax and Cybrdi tissue arrays did not show a clear association between the differentiation grade and extent of uPARAP/Endo180 staining. However, the limited number of samples included on these arrays and potential variability in histological classification criteria precluded a quantitative assessment. Therefore, to investigate the association between tumor differentiation grade and uPARAP/Endo180 expression, we analyzed the expression of an additional 48 tumors classified prior to immunostaining by one pathologist as well-differentiated (n=15), moderately differentiated (n=19), or poorly differentiated (n=15) head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (Figure 3C). This analysis showed no difference in the intensity of uPARAP/Endo180 expression between well-differentiated and moderately differentiated tumors (median 1, range 04 for both). However, a significant increase in uPARAP/Endo180 expression was observed in poorly differentiated tumors (median 2, range 04) when compared with well-differentiated and moderately differentiated tumors (p<0.04).
Intracellular collagen degradation mediated by uPARAP/Endo180 is emerging as a quantitatively important pathway for ECM degradation in the context of malignant tissue remodeling (East et al. 2003
Many mechanistic aspects of intracellular collagen degradation remain poorly understood. However, extra- and intracellular collagen degradation pathways appear to operate at least partially independently of each other (Everts et al. 1989
The work was supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Intramural Research Program and by a grant from the Department of Defense (DAMD-17-02-0693 to THB). J. Shireman was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical ResearchNIH Research Scholars Program. L.H.E, N.B., and D.H.M were supported by EU contract LSHC-CT-2003-503297 and by grants from the Danish Cancer Society, the Danish Cancer Research Foundation, and the Danish Medical Research Council. We thank Drs. Mary Jo Danton and J. Silvio Gutkind for carefully reading this manuscript.
Received for publication October 27, 2006; accepted December 4, 2006
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