Abstract
Aquaporin 5 has been recently found as an important oncogenic marker whose expression levels seem to be determined by the level of cellular differentiation. Despite aquaporin volume decrease (AVD) being the most conserved earliest event in apoptosis, there is still a paucity of studies exploring on aquaporin expression and its relationship with apoptosis in cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of aquaporin 5 channel protein and to explore on its relationship with apoptosis in well and poorly differentiated non-small cell lung carcinoma both in-vivo and in-vitro. Findings from the study showed that the expression of AQP5 both in-vivo and in-vitro was dependent on the type and degree of tumour differentiation. In-vivo, an increase in aquaporin 5 expression was associated with an increased apoptosis in both poorly and highly differentiated adenocarcinoma (AC) while there was no association between aquaporin 5 expression and apoptosis in both poorly and highly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). In vitro, differentiation therapy in the form of ATRA decreased both cell proliferation and increased the expression of AQP5 in A549 cells. The cytomorphological changes, expression of differentiation markers and flow cytometry apoptotic results were dependent on the dose of ATRA treatment. In conclusion, a higher expression of aquaporin 5 was found to promote the rate of the apoptotic process in lung adenocarcinoma (AC).
Highlights
Aquaporins are integral membrane channel proteins that regulate water and small solute movement across membranes in both physiological and pathological conditions [1]-[3]
A detailed examination of surgically resected tissues in this study showed that in squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the histological degree of differentiation of cancer cells determines the difference in the diameters of the cells and the expression of aquaporin 5
A higher expression of AQP5 in poorly differentiated AC than poorly differentiated SCC might be related to the involvement of the AQP5 channel protein in water permeability of AC cells which are specialized for mucus secretion
Summary
Aquaporins are integral membrane channel proteins that regulate water and small solute movement across membranes in both physiological and pathological conditions [1]-[3]. Studies where the over-expression of AQP5 was associated with an increased rate of cell migration, proliferation and invasiveness of cancer cells include those of the cancers of the colon [7], ovary [10], pancreas [11], stomach [12], bone [13] and the lungs [14]. Apoptosis remains a complex biochemical process in which the balance between cellular proliferation and cell death has been shown to play a critical role in tumour progression [16]. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression of AQP5 in cancer cells and to find its relationship to apoptosis in various grades of differentiated non-small cell lung cancer
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