Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer in which patients with metastatic disease have a 5-year survival rate of less than 10%. Recently, the overexpression of a b-galactoside binding protein, galectin-3 (LGALS3), has been correlated with metastatic melanoma in patients. We have previously shown that silencing galectin-3 in metastatic melanoma cells reduces tumor growth and metastasis. Gene expression profiling identified the protumorigenic gene autotaxin ( ENPP2) to be downregulated after silencing galectin-3. Here we report that galectin-3 regulates autotaxin expression at the transcriptional level by modulating the expression of the transcription factor NFAT1 (NFATC2). Silencing galectin-3 reduced NFAT1 protein expression, which resulted in decreased autotaxin expression and activity. Reexpression of autotaxin in galectin-3 silenced melanoma cells rescues angiogenesis, tumor growth, and metastasis in vivo. Silencing NFAT1 expression in metastatic melanoma cells inhibited tumor growth and metastatic capabilities in vivo. Our data elucidate a previously unidentified mechanism by which galectin-3 regulates autotaxin and assign a novel role for NFAT1 during melanoma progression. ©2012 AACR.
CITATION STYLE
Braeuer, R. R., Zigler, M., Kamiya, T., Dobroff, A. S., Huang, L., Choi, W., … Bar-Eli, M. (2012). Galectin-3 contributes to melanoma growth and metastasis via regulation of NFAT1 and autotaxin. Cancer Research, 72(22), 5757–5766. https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-12-2424
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