Resistin and Visfatin Expression in HCT-116 Colorectal Cancer Cell Line

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
2 Cellular and Molecular Endocrine Research Center, Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
Adipocytokines, hormones secreted from adipose tissue, have been shown to be associated with many cancers
such as breast, prostate and colorectal cancer. Recent studies have indicated that resistin and visfatin, two of
these adipokines have high level plasma concentrations in colorectal cancer patients and may be promising
biomarkers for colorectal cancer. The aim of this study was to identify whether the colorectal cancer cell line,
HCT-116, itself is the source of these two adipokines secretion. Resistin and visfatin expression were
investigated in HCT-116 by RT – PCR at mRNA level and confirmed by ELISA at protein level. Visfatin
showed a high expression at both mRNA and protein levels in HCT-116. Conversely, resistin was not expressed
in either cell lysate or supernatant. These results showed that HCT-116 colorectal cancer cells secrete and
express visfatin endogenously. However, they are not the main source of resistin and the high level of resistin in
colorectal cancer may be due to monocytes and other inflammatory cells which increase in proinflammation
status of cancer. Taken together, visfatin may act on colorectal cancer cell in an autocrine manner while resistin
may act in a paracrine manner.
Keywords