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2nd Department of Medicine and * Institute of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt/Main, Germany
2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: J.Stein{at}em.uni-frankfurt.de.
| ABSTRACT |
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KEY WORDS: colon cancer dihydroxycholecalciferol tributyrin vitamin D receptor
| INTRODUCTION |
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The studies done during the last decade provide multiple lines of
evidence that butyrate indeed interferes with the pathogenesis of
colorectal cancer. Butyrate inhibits DNA synthesis and arrests growth
of neoplastic colonocytes in G1 (3)
,
modifies expression of genes involved in chemotherapy resistance
(4)
and in cell proliferation/differentiation
(5
,6)
, and induces apoptosis by a p53-independent pathway
(7)
. At least some of butyrates antineoplastic effects
in colon cancer cells may be due to its synergistic action with another
antiproliferative agent, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3
[dihydroxycholecalciferol;
(OH)2D3]. In various
cancer cell lines it has been shown that butyrate and
(OH)2D3 act synergistically
in reducing proliferation and enhancing differentiation of neoplastic
cells (8
9
10)
.
In spite of its early promise, butyrate is not among the drugs used for
cancer treatment. The major problem has been to achieve and maintain
its millimolar concentrations in blood. Butyrate is metabolized rapidly
as soon as it enters the colonocyte via its active transport system
(11
12
13)
, and its plasma concentrations are far below
those required to exert its antiproliferative/differentiating actions.
A prodrug of natural butyrate, tributyrin, is a neutral short-chain
fatty acid triglyceride that is likely to overcome the pharmacokinetic
drawbacks of natural butyrate as a drug (14)
. Because it
is rapidly absorbed and chemically stable in plasma, tributyrin
diffuses through biological membranes and is metabolized by
intracellular lipases, releasing therapeutically effective butyrate
over time directly into the cell. Compared with butyrate, tributyrin
has more favorable pharmacokinetics (14
15
16)
and is well
tolerated (17)
. Liquid tributyrin filled into gelatin
capsules and administered orally resulted in millimolar concentrations
of butyrate both in plasma and inside the cell (17)
. In
vitro, tributyrin has potent antiproliferative, proapoptotic and
differentiation-inducing effects in neoplastic cells
(18
19
20)
. In this study, human colon cancer cells (Caco-2)
were used to investigate the effects of tributyrin on growth and
differentiation.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Disposable cell culture ware was purchased from Nalge Nunc International (Wiesbaden, Germany). Dulbeccos modified Eagles medium (DMEM),3 fetal calf serum (FCS), sodium pyruvate, nonessential amino acids and PBS were obtained from GIBCO BRL (Eggenstein, Germany). Penicillin/streptomycin was from Biochrom (Berlin, Germany). Tributyrin was purchased from Sigma (Deisenhofen, Germany) and butyric acid (sodium salt) from Merck-Schuchardt (Munich, Germany). [3H]-(OH)2D3 (6.6 · 1012 Bq/mmol) and (OH)2D3 were obtained from Immundiagnostik (Bensheim, Germany), and Lipofundin 10% N from B. Braun (Melsungen, Germany).
Cell culture.
Caco-2 cells were obtained from the German Cancer Research Center (Heidelberg, Germany). The stock was maintained in 175 cm2 flasks in a humidified incubator at 37°C in an atmosphere of 95% air and 5% CO2. The medium consisted of DMEM, supplemented with 10% FCS, 1% penicillin/streptomycin, 1% sodium pyruvate and 1% nonessential amino acids. The cells were passaged weekly using Dulbeccos PBS containing 0.25% trypsin and 1% EDTA. The medium was changed three times per week. Passages 4453 were used in all experiments. The cells were screened for possible contamination with mycoplasma at monthly intervals. For experiments, the cells were seeded onto plastic cell culture wells in serum-containing medium and allowed to attach for 24 h. Before treatment, the cells were synchronized in medium containing 1% FCS.
Tributyrin was incorporated into Lipofundin to yield a 20% (v/v) stock
emulsion. The emulsion was mixed vigorously for
5 min. The stock
emulsion of tributyrin was freshly prepared each day.
(OH)2D3 was dissolved in ethanol (final maximal
concentration of ethanol in medium was 0.1%) to yield a 1 mmol/L stock
solution, which was stored at -20°C. Butyrate was dissolved in PBS.
To assess whether the solvents might influence the experimental
conditions, control cells were treated with either 0.1% ethanol or
10.0% PBS Lipofundin in concentrations used in stock solution. No
differences were observed.
Cell proliferation.
Cell proliferation was assessed by cell counting after staining with
crystal violet (21)
. To investigate changes in DNA
synthesis, incorporation of 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) was done
additionally within the initial 48 h in culture, using the Cell
Proliferation ELISA Kit (Boehringer Mannheim, Germany).
Cell differentiation.
Alkaline phosphatase activity was used to assess differentiation of Caco-2 cells. For the assay, the cells were washed with cold PBS, scraped, sonicated (2 x 5 s) and centrifuged at 1500 x g for 10 min. Alkaline phosphatase activity in the supernatant was measured by hydrolysis of p-nitrophenyl phosphate at pH 9.8 and 25°C (Ecoline Alkaline Phosphatase Assay, Merck, Darmstadt, Germany). Cellular protein was determined by Coomassie blue assay using a commercial kit (Bio-Rad Laboratories GmbH, Munich, Germany). Enzyme activity was expressed as milliunits per milligram of protein, one unit representing the enzyme activity hydrolyzing 1 µmol of substrate/min.
Vitamin D receptor assay.
Synchronized subconfluent cells were treated with tributyrin at a concentration of 0.5 mmol/L for 48 h (1% FCS in the medium). Then they were washed twice with 0.5 mL culture medium and incubated at 16°C for 8 h with increasing concentrations (0.22 nmol/L) of [3H]-labeled (OH)2D3 in the absence or presence of unlabeled (OH)2D3 (1 µmol/L). Incubation was terminated by placing the dishes on ice and by aspiration of the medium followed by washing with cold Hanks' buffered saline. The cells were solubilized by a 30-min incubation at room temperature with 0.5 mL of 1 mol/L NaOH, and radioactivity was measured by liquid scintillation counting. Saturation kinetics were analyzed by Scatchard plots.
Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
Caco-2 cells were grown either serum free or with 1% FCS and then
cultured in the presence of 5500 µmol/L tributyrin
for 12 h. Total RNA was isolated by RNeasy Mini Kit (Qiagen,
Hilden, Germany) according to manufacturers instructions and
quantitated by measuring the absorbance at 260 nm. RT-PCR was
performed as described (22)
. RT and PCR primers were
deduced from the vitamin D receptor sequence (23)
. After
DNase digestion, 2 µg of total RNA were reverse
transcribed into cDNA using oligo d(T)-primer. After cDNA synthesis,
PCR amplification was performed using the cDNA template with the
specific primer pair (F1: 5'-GCCCACCACAAGACCTAT-3' and R2:
5'-CCTTTTGGATGCTGTAACTG-3'). The amplification profile consisted of
denaturation at 94°C for 30 s, annealing at 58°C for 30 s, and extension at 72°C for 30 s after a 5-min denaturation
step at 94°C in a Perkin Elmer Gene Amp PCR System 9600 (Wellesley,
MA). The amplified products (50 cycles, 297 bp) were detected
by electrophoresis in a 2% agarose gel and visualized by ethidium
bromide staining and ultraviolet transillumination. As control,
ß-actin mRNA was used, resulting in a PCR product of 405 bp. The
optical densities of the PCR products were analyzed by a commercially
available computer program (Bio-1 D V.96., Vilber Lourmat,
France), normalized for the density of ß-actin, and verified by
sequencing.
Statistics.
All data presented in this paper are means ± SD, n = 38 different experiments. Unpaired one-way ANOVA was used to compare means; P-values were corrected by the Bonferroni method for multiple comparisons, and P < 0.05 was the level of significance required to reject the null hypothesis.
| RESULTS |
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(OH)2D3, butyrate,
tributyrin and the combination [tributyrin with
(OH)2D3)] all stimulated
differentiation in Caco-2 cells 2- to 10-fold compared with spontaneous
differentiation occurring in untreated cells. The order of potency was
(OH)2D3 < butyrate < tributyrin < [tributyrin +
(OH)2D3)] (Table 1
). Compared with butyrate, both tributyrin and [tributyrin +
(OH)2D3)] were
significantly more potent inducers of Caco-2 cell differentiation.
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| DISCUSSION |
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Our data provide several lines of evidence that tributyrin exerts antiproliferative actions on colon cancer cells more potently than butyrate itself. Furthermore, our study shows that tributyrin applied with (OH)2D3 inhibits growth more potently than any of the substances given alone. The antiproliferative and prodifferentiating action of tributyrin, further enhanced by the addition of (OH)2D3, likely occurs due to upregulation of vitamin D receptor expression by tributyrin and the subsequent enhanced binding of (OH)2D3 to Caco-2 cells. These data may be of a considerable clinical relevance because they suggest a possible therapeutic approach in patients with colorectal cancer.
Tributyrin was more potent than butyrate in reducing the number of Caco-2 cells in culture. Impairment of DNA synthesis during the initial phases of proliferation was apparently not the reason for the potent growth-inhibitory effect of tributyrin, i.e., BrdU incorporation was highly variable; after 48 h, the effect of tributyrin was slightly (P = 0.0687) greater than that of butyrate. However, tributyrin was a more potent inducer of Caco-2 cell differentiation than natural butyrate, and this effect was enhanced a further 40% by the addition of (OH)2D3. These data suggest that it is not only the amount of available butyrate in the cell that is responsible for enhanced differentiation after treatment with tributyrin, but that the explanation for the effect may lie in a fine regulatory mechanism involving the action of butyrate (as a potent differentiating agent) on the upregulation of the vitamin D receptor in colon cancer cells.
The antineoplastic properties of
(OH)2D3 have been well
established. (OH)2D3
inhibits growth and induces differentiation in a number of neoplastic
cell lines such as the HL-60 human promyelocytic cell line
(28)
, in breast cancer cells (29)
, colon
cancer cells (30
31
32)
, malignant melanoma
(33)
and histiocytic lymphoma (34)
. Enhanced
differentiation after administration of
(OH)2D3 was also observed
in nontransformed cells, such as those of normal human bone
(35)
and monocytes (36)
. Suppression of
neoplastic growth was not observed in tumors lacking the vitamin D
receptor, nor did it occur after administration of a structurally
related metabolite, 1,24,25-trihydroxycholecalciferol, suggesting that
the antiproliferative effect of
(OH)2D3 is specific and
exclusively receptor mediated (37)
.
The vitamin D receptor, present in "classical" vitamin
D-responsive organs such as bone, kidney and
intestine has also been localized in a variety of other normal tissues
and several cancer cell lines, including the Caco-2 cell line
(30
31
32)
. The actions of
(OH)2D3 in regulating
transcription of the genes involved in calcium and phosphate
regulation, metabolism of vitamin D, DNA replication and
differentiation, have all been attributed to the high affinity binding
of (OH)2D3 to its receptor
(38)
. An alternative mode of action may be that
(OH)2D3 inactivates
estrogen, which has been implicated in the development of colorectal
cancer (39)
. Therefore, it is logical to propose that the
substance causing overexpression of the vitamin D receptor in
neoplastic cells may provide a valuable tool to enhance its
antiproliferative effect in cancer. Our results, which show that
butyrate (in the form of its prodrug, tributyrin) upregulates the
expression of the vitamin D receptor and enhances the antiproliferative
action of (OH)2D3 in human
colon cancer cells, may therefore point out a novel method to impair
colon cancer cell growth. The improved bioavailability of butyrate (in
the form of tributyrin) may create an opportunity for its possible
therapeutic and chemopreventive applications, especially if synergy in
vivo, confirming in vitro studies, can be demonstrated with
(OH)2D3 and its analogs.
Combinations of tributyrin and
(OH)2D3 (or its fluorinated
analogs) may allow such a drug to be used in cancer patients. A
promising application ensuring enhanced delivery may include
encapsulation of both tributyrin and
(OH)2D3 into liposomes or
their conjugation to an appropriate antibody delivery system. Studies
designed to investigate this approach are in progress.
| FOOTNOTES |
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3 Abbreviations used: BrdU,
5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine; DMEM, Dulbeccos modified Eagles medium:
FCS, fetal calf serum; (OH)2D3,
dihydroxycholecalciferol; RT-PCR, reverse
transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. ![]()
Manuscript received November 27, 2000. Initial review completed January 11, 2001. Revision accepted February 28, 2001.
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