Lysophosphatidic acid transactivates both c-Met and epidermal growth factor receptor, and induces cyclooxygenase-2 expression in human colon cancer LoVo cells

AIM: To examine whether lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)induces phosphorylation of c-Met and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), both of which have been proposed as prognostic markers of colorectal cancer, and whether LPA induces cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression in human colon cancer cells.METHODS: Using a human colon cancer cell line, LoVo cells, we performed immunoprecipitation analysis,followed by Western blot analysis. We also examined whether LPA induced COX-2 expression, by Western blot analysis.RESULTS: Immunoprecipitation analysis revealed that 10 μmol/L LPA induced tyrosine phosphorylation of c-Met and EGFR in LoVo cells within a few minutes. We found that c-Met tyrosine phosphorylation induced by LPA was not attenuated by pertussis toxin or a matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor, in marked contrast to the results for EGFR. In addition, 0.2-40 μmol/L LPA induced COX-2 expression in a dose-dependent manner.CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that LPA acts upstream of various receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and COX-2,and thus may act as a potent stimulator of colorectal cancer.