Background
The prognosis of colon cancer is poor for metastasis, while the mechanism, especially adipocytes related, is not yet clear. The
Conclusion
FABP4 overexpression could increase FAs transport to enhance energy and lipid metabolism, and activate AKT pathway and EMT to promote the migration and invasion of colon cancer cells.
Methods
The distribution of lipids and FABP4 was tested in the colon cancer tissues and adjacent normal tissues, and their relationship was also verified in vitro. Experiments about cellular invasion, migration and proliferation were performed to detect the impacts of FABP4 on the biological behaviors of colon cancer, and the positive
Results
Higher accumulation of lipids and stronger FABP4 transcription were observed in colon cancer tissues. Having been incubated with adipose tissue extract and overexpressed FABP4, colon cancer cells demonstrated enhanced lipid accumulation. In functional experiments, co-culture with adipose tissue extract significantly enhanced the invasion and migration of colon cancer cells, as well as the energy and lipid metabolism, and all these processes were reversed by FABP4 inhibitor. In addition, the metastasis of FABP4-overexpressed colon cancer cells was also significantly enhanced in vitro and in vivo. In terms of mechanism, the bioinformatics analysis showed that FABP4 was enriched in 11 pathways related to metabolic processes in FABP4 overexpressed cells. Finally, FABP4 overexpression improved EMT progression of colon cancer, as evidenced by the upregulation of Snail, MMP-2 and MMP-9, the downregulation of E-cadherin. The expression of p-Akt was also elevated.