<i>In vivo</i> xenograft experiments also demonstrated that MSCs promoted differentiation into CAFs through CXCR4/TGF-β1 signaling in either primary tumor tissues or hepatic metastatic tissues of CRC.<b>Conclusion</b>: Our studies have revealed the essential role of CXCR4/TGF-β1 axis playing in the transformation of tumor microenvironment by mediating MSCs differentiation into CAFs, promoting CRCs growth and metastasis.
The relationship between these two signaling pathways remains to be delineated in liver metastasis of colon cancer.<b>Methods</b>: Immunohistochemistry was employed to investigate CXCR4 expression in 45 human specimens of primary colorectal cancer (CRC) and liver metastasis.
Subgroup analysis also indicated that high CXCR4 expression in oesophagus, gastric and colorectal cancer all predicted a worse prognosis (HR = 1.52, 95% CI = 1.26-1.84, <i>p</i> = 0.001 for oesophagus cancer; HR = 1.59, 95% CI = 1.10-2.30, <i>p</i> = 0.015 for gastric cancer; HR = 2.21, 95% CI = 1.56-3.14, <i>p</i> = 0.000 for colorectal cancer).
Taken together, these data show that miR-622 inhibits CRC angiogenesis by suppressing the CXCR4-VEGFA signaling axis, which represents a promising target for developing a new therapeutic strategy against CRC.
Inhibition of CXCR7/CXCR4 heterodimer-induced histone demethylation could be an effective strategy for the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer.
In the clinical cohort, chemokine/chemokine receptor levels were elevated 3-10-fold in CRC specimens (P⩽ 0.004) and were higher in patients who developed metastasis (P= 0.03 - < 0.0001).
Our findings revealed the critical role of CXCR4 in promoting progression of inflammatory colorectal cancer through recruiting immunocytes and enhancing cytoskeletal remodeling by lncRNA XIST/ miR-133a-3p/ RhoA signaling.
However, CXCR3-A overexpression without CXCR4 expression did not cause CRC cell invasion, which suggested that CXCR3-A indirectly affect cell invasion through regulating CXCR4.
Additionally, we found that CAFs could secrete stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1) and promote CRC cell metastasis in distant organs via the SDF-1/C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4 (CXCR4) axis.
Quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to determine the expression of miR-193a-5p in three CRC cell lines (HCT-116, SW-480, and HT-29) and its impact on metastasis-related genes ( vimentin and CXCR4) before and after mimic transfection.
A tissue microarray (TMA) of 684 patient specimens of primary CRCs was analyzed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) for the expression of CXCR4 and pCXCR4 by tumor cells and tumor-infiltrating immune cells (TICs).
Moreover, the pooled hazard ratio for disease-free survival/overall survival showed that overexpression of C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4/stromal cell-derived factor-1 reduced disease-free survival/overall survival in colorectal cancer.
Finally, knockdown of hypoxia inducible factor (HIF-1α) by shRNA reversed the role of Smad7, CXCR-4, PDGF-A, TGF-A and ANGPTL-4 overexpression in HCT-116 cells, these findings provide the potential angiogenic targets for the treatment of colorectal cancer.
NKD2 small‑interfering RNA (siRNA) and CXCR4 expression plasmid was synthesized and transfected into the colorectal cancer cell lines, and NKD2 and CXCR4 expression levels were detected.
Taken together, our data suggest that the combined use of Lgr5 and CXCR4 may facilitate the enrichment of CSCs in CRC, and that treating Lgr5+/CXCR4+ CRC cells may improve the outcome of CRC therapy.
Treatment of CRC cells with the CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100 attenuated SEMA3F knockdown-induced invasion and metastasis of CRC cells in vitro and in vivo.
CXCR2, CXCR4, and their chemokine ligands were evaluated in liver metastases of colorectal cancer in order to study their correlation with overall and disease-free survival of patients having received, or not received, a neoadjuvant chemotherapy regimen.