Deficiency in the 15 kDa Selenoprotein Inhibits Tumorigenicity and Metastasis of Colon Cancer Cells

Selenium has cancer preventive activity that is mediated, in part, through selenoproteins. The role of the 15 kDa selenoprotein (Sep15) in colon cancer was assessed by preparing and using mouse colon CT26 cells stably transfected with shRNA constructs targeting Sep15. Metabolic 75Se-labeling and Northern and Western blot analyses revealed that more than 90% of Sep15 was knocked down. Growth of the resulting Sep15-deficient CT26 cells was reduced (p<0.01) and cells formed significantly (p<0.001) fewer colonies in soft agar compared to control CT26 cells. Whereas most (14/15) BALB/c mice injected with control cells developed tumors, few (3/30) mice injected with Sep15 knockdown cells developed tumors (p<0.0001). The ability to form pulmonary metastases had similar results. Mice injected with the plasmid-transfected control cells had >250 lung metastases/mouse; however, mice injected with the Sep15 knockdown cells only had 7.8 +/- 5.4 metastases. To investigate molecular targets affected by Sep15 status, gene expression patterns between control and knockdown CT26 cells were compared. Ingenuity Pathways Analysis was used to analyze the 1045 genes that were significantly (p<0.001) affected by Sep15 deficiency. The highest scored biological functions were cancer and cellular growth and proliferation. Consistent with these observations, subsequent analyses revealed a G2/M cell cycle arrest in Sep15 CT26 knockdown cells. In contrast, to CT26 cells Sep15 knockdown in Lewis Lung Carcinoma (LLC1) cells did not affect anchorage-dependent or independent cell growth. These data suggest tissue specificity in the cancer protective effects of Sep15 knockdown, which are mediated, at least in part, by influencing the cell cycle.

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Irons R, Tsuji PA, Carlson BA, Ouyang P, Yoo MH, Xu XM, Hatfield DL, Gladyshev VN, Davis CD