B7-H3 promotes colorectal cancer angiogenesis through activating the NF-κB pathway to induce VEGFA expression

  • Cell Death Dis. 2020 Jan 23;11(1):55. doi: 10.1038/s41419-020-2252-3.
Ruoqin Wang  1  2 ,  Yanchao Ma  1 ,  Shenghua Zhan  3 ,  Guangbo Zhang  2  3 ,  Lei Cao  4 ,  Xueguang Zhang  2  3  4 ,  Tongguo Shi  5  6 ,  Weichang Chen  7
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou, China.
  • 2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Clinical Immunology, Soochow University, 708 Renmin Road, Suzhou, China.
  • 3. Jiangsu Institute of Clinical Immunology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 708 Renmin Road, Suzhou, China.
  • 4. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Gastrointestinal tumor Immunology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 708 Renmin Road, Suzhou, China.
  • 5. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Clinical Immunology, Soochow University, 708 Renmin Road, Suzhou, China. [email protected].
  • 6. Jiangsu Institute of Clinical Immunology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 708 Renmin Road, Suzhou, China. [email protected].
  • 7. Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, 188 Shizi Road, Suzhou, China. [email protected].
PMID: 31974361 DOI: 10.1038/s41419-020-2252-3
Abstract

Tumor angiogenesis is a hallmark of Cancer and is involved in the tumorigenesis of solid tumors. B7-H3, an immune checkpoint molecule, plays critical roles in proliferation, metastasis and tumorigenesis in diverse tumors; however, little is known about the biological functions and molecular mechanism underlying B7-H3 in regulating colorectal Cancer (CRC) angiogenesis. In this study, we first demonstrated that the expression of B7-H3 was significantly upregulated and was positively associated with platelet endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (CD31) level in tissue samples from patients with CRC. In addition, a series of in vitro and in vivo experiments showed that conditioned medium from B7-H3 knockdown CRC cells significantly inhibited the migration, invasion, and tube formation of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), whereas overexpression of B7-H3 had the opposite effect. Furthermore, B7-H3 promoted tumor angiogenesis by upregulating VEGFA expression. Recombinant VEGFA abolished the inhibitory effects of conditioned medium from shB7-H3 CRC cells on HUVEC angiogenesis, while VEGFA siRNA or a VEGFA-neutralizing antibody reversed the effects of conditioned medium from B7-H3-overexpressing CRC cells on HUVEC angiogenesis. Moreover, we verified that B7-H3 upregulated VEGFA expression and angiogenesis by activating the NF-κB pathway. Collectively, our findings identify the B7-H3/NF-κB/VEGFA axis in promoting CRC angiogenesis, which serves as a promising approach for CRC treatment.

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