gms | German Medical Science

65th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

German Society of Neurosurgery (DGNC)

11 - 14 May 2014, Dresden

Expression of Kv10.1 and KCNN3 potassium ion channels in gliomas

Meeting Abstract

  • Milena Ninkovic - The Translational Neurooncology Research Group, Department of Neurosurgery, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
  • Swetlana Sperling - The Translational Neurooncology Research Group, Department of Neurosurgery, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
  • Aleksandra Sachkova - The Translational Neurooncology Research Group, Department of Neurosurgery, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
  • Sabine Martin - Department of Molecular Biology of Neuronal Signals, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany
  • Luis A. Pardo - Department of Molecular Biology of Neuronal Signals, Max Planck Institute of Experimental Medicine, Göttingen, Germany
  • Ramón Martínez-Olivera - The Translational Neurooncology Research Group, Department of Neurosurgery, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
  • Veit Rohde - The Translational Neurooncology Research Group, Department of Neurosurgery, Georg-August University Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie. 65. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie (DGNC). Dresden, 11.-14.05.2014. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2014. DocP 042

doi: 10.3205/14dgnc438, urn:nbn:de:0183-14dgnc4388

Published: May 13, 2014

© 2014 Ninkovic et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.


Outline

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Objective: The latest research suggests that cellular migration and invasion in cancer cells in general, and glioma cells in particular, are facilitated by ion channels. It has been shown that K+ channels play an important role in migration/invasion, cell cycle progression, cell volume control, and apoptosis. Specifically the Kv10.1 potassium channel is known to be implicated in malignant transformation and tumor progression in many cancer cell lines and tumor tissues. Unfortunately a previous report about mRNA expression of Kv10.1 in gliomas showed controversial results depending on the malignancy grade and histological subtypes. KCNN3 channel is prominently expressed in breast cancer where it promotes cancer cell migration. Up to now KCNN3 transcript has been analyzed only in human tumor cells of astrocytic origin (WHO IV).

Method: In the present work we examine mRNA of two potassium channels; Kv10.1 and KCNN3 in 40 glioma tissues of different malignancy grades (WHO I-IV) and histological subtypes (Astrocytom I, Astrocytom II, Oligoastrocytom II, Oligodendrogliom II, Astrocytom III and Glioblastom). The expression levels were studied by RT-PCR using previously shown suitable reference genes TBP, HMBS and HPRT1. In parallel we examined protein expression of those channels by western blotting.

Results: mRNA of both channels could be detected in all examined tissues. For Kv10.1 channel the decrease of expression level from WHO II to IV was significant (p= 0.0031) as well as from WHO III to IV (p= 0.0067). The highest mRNA expression level was detected in WHO II which could be confirmed by protein analysis. KCNN3 shows the same tendency considering the grading of the tumors and we found a significant change in expression between WHO II and IV (p= 0.0414). The highest mRNA expression level for KCNN3 was again detected in low-grade glioma (WHO II). Interestingly KCNN3 protein was absent from 7 out of 10 GBM analyzed tissues. Protein expression level from tissues sample WHO II and III correlate with mRNA expression.

Conclusions: Our findings strongly suggest a differential expression of Kv10.1 and KCNN3 in gliomas depending on the malignancy grade and nature of the tumor cells, with the highest expression level of both channels in low-grade gliomas. Further examination of these channels in lower tumor grades is important in order to examine their potential role in tumor progression.