Apoptotic cell death of human colon cancer cell lines after extracellular calgranulin B uptake

Abstract

The molecular mechanisms through which extracellular calgranulin B affects colon cancer cells remain unclear. My present study focused on the systemic link between calgranulin B and colon cancer. In patients tumor tissues, calgranulin B protein showed a positive correlation with stromal inflammatory cells surrounding tumor cells, and methylation of the gDNA promoter region of calgranulin B was observed in both patients paired tissues and human colon cancer cell lines. Notably, extracellular calgranulin B could penetrate colon cancer cells, but not the other types of cancer cells tested. Internalization of calgranulin B was possible via various mechanisms depending on colon cancer cells and caused apoptotic cell death. In addition, calgranulin B inhibited aurora A kinase activity in a dose-dependent manner and suppressed tumor growth in a mouse model. My findings demonstrate the antitumor effects of calgranulin B in the inflammatory microenvironment of colon cancer.