Adiponectin Repressed Proliferation of Colon Cancer Cells via AMPK Activation

Abstract

Adiponectin is a member of adipocytockines and regulates whole body homeostasis. Recently, it has been shown that the level of plasma adiponectin is negatively correlated with the risk for certain cancers including breast, prostate, gastric, and colon cancers. However, it is largely unknown the role of adiponectin on colon cancers. In this work, we investigated the effects of adiponectin on the growth of colon cancer cells. Adiponectin specifically attenuated the growth of colon cancer cell lines, including HCT 116, HT‐29, and LoVo while it did not reduce the growth of normal cell lines such as HEK 293 and RWPE1. Consistently, adiponectin treatment into colon cancer cells enhanced the expression of CDK inhibitors including p21 and p27, indicating that adiponectin attenuates rapid growth of colon cancer cells by regulating of cell cycle. Moreover, adiponectin in colon cancer cells stimulated the activity of AMPK, which appears to be crucial to mediate suppression of cell growth. Collectively, our data suggest that adiponectin is a negative regulator of colon cancer growth, and that the growth inhibition effects of adiponectin on colon cancer cells might be dependent on AMPK activation.This work was supported in part by grants from the Molecular and Cellular BioDiscovery Research Program (M10748000258‐07N4800‐25810) and the National Research Laboratory Program (R0A‐2004‐000‐10359‐0) of Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF). J.B.K. and A.Y.K. was supported by a BK21 Research Fellowship from the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development.