Studies on Expression of Aldehyde Dehydrogenase in Normal and Cancerous Tissues of Thyroids

Abstract

Recently published articles have reported the controversial data regarding expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase isozyme 1A1 (ALDH1A1), a potential candidate marker for normal and cancer stem cells (CSCs), in thyroid tissues. These data prompted us to re-evaluate expression of ALDH1A1 in normal and cancerous thyroid tissues by 2 different means. The first method was immunohistochemistry with 2 different anti-ALDH1A1 antibodies from distinct companies. Following validating the integrity of these 2 antibodies by Western blotting with ALDH-expressing and nonexpressing cancer cell lines and immunohistochemistry with breast and colon tissues, we report here significant and comparable expression of ALDH1A1 in both normal and cancerous thyroid tissues with both antibodies. Next, relative expression levels of ALDH isozymes were evaluated by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), revealing that ALDH1A1 was the most highly expressed isozyme followed by ALDH9A1 and relative expression patterns of isozymes were very similar in normal and cancerous tissues. All these data demonstrate that thyroid cells of normal and cancer origins do express ALDH1A1 and to a lesser extent 9A1. Further study will be necessary to study functional significance of ALDH1A1 in the function and behaviors of thyroid normal and cancer stem cells.

Key words

stem cells - immunohistochemistry - thyroid cancer

• References

• 1 Valent P, Bonnet D, De Maria R, Lapidot T, Copland M, Melo JV, Chomienne C, Ishikawa F, Schuringa JJ, Stassi G, Huntly B, Herrmann H, Soulier J, Roesch A, Schuurhuis GJ, Wohrer S, Arock M, Zuber J, Cerny-Reiterer S, Johnsen HE, Andreeff M, Eaves C. Cancer stem cell definitions and terminology: the devil is in the details. Nat Rev Cancer 2012; 12: 767-775
• 2 Marcato P, Dean CA, Giacomantonio CA, Lee PW. Aldehyde dehydrogenase: its role as a cancer stem cell marker comes down to the specific isoform. Cell Cycle 2011; 10: 1378-1384
• 3 Todaro M, Iovino F, Eterno V, Cammareri P, Gambara G, Espina V, Gulotta G, Dieli F, Giordano S, De Maria R, Stassi G. Tumorigenic and metastatic activity of human thyroid cancer stem cells. Cancer Res 2010; 70: 8874-8885
• 4 Deng S, Yang X, Lassus H, Liang S, Kaur S, Ye Q, Li C, Wang LP, Roby KF, Orsulic S, Connolly DC, Zhang Y, Montone K, Butzow R, Coukos G, Zhang L. Distinct expression levels and patterns of stem cell marker, aldehyde dehydrogenase isoform 1 (ALDH1), in human epithelial cancers. PLoS One 2010; 5: e10277
• 5 Marchitti SA, Brocker C, Stagos D, Vasiliou V. Non-P450 aldehyde oxidizing enzymes: the aldehyde dehydrogenase superfamily. Expert Opin Drug Metab Toxicol 2008; 4: 697-720
• 6 Ma I, Allan AL. The role of human aldehyde dehydrogenase in normal and cancer stem cells. Stem Cell Rev 2011; 7: 292-306
• 7 Jimeno A, Feldmann G, Suarez-Gauthier A, Rasheed Z, Solomon A, Zou GM, Rubio-Viqueira B, Garcia-Garcia E, Lopez-Rios F, Matsui W, Maitra A, Hidalgo M. A direct pancreatic cancer xenograft model as a platform for cancer stem cell therapeutic development. Mol Cancer Ther 2009; 8: 310-314
• 8 Shimamura M, Nagayama Y, Matsuse M, Yamashita S, Mitsutake N. Analysis of multiple markers for cancer stem-like cells in human thyroid carcinoma cell lines. Endocr J 2014; 6: 481-490
• 9 van den Hoogen C, van der Horst G, Cheung H, Buijs JT, Pelger RC, van der Pluijm G. The aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme 7A1 is functionally involved in prostate cancer bone metastasis. Clin Exp Metastasis 2011; 28: 615-625
• 10 Marcato P, Dean CA, Pan D, Araslanova R, Gillis M, Joshi M, Helyer L, Pan L, Leidal A, Gujar S, Giacomantonio CA, Lee PW. Aldehyde dehydrogenase activity of breast cancer stem cells is primarily due to isoform ALDH1A3 and its expression is predictive of metastasis. Stem Cells 2011; 29: 32-45
• 11 Luo Y, Dallaglio K, Chen Y, Robinson WA, Robinson SE, McCarter MD, Wang J, Gonzalez R, Thompson DC, Norris DA, Roop DR, Vasiliou V, Fujita M. ALDH1A Isozymes are Markers of Human Melanoma Stem Cells and Potential Therapeutic Targets. Stem Cells 2012; 30: 2100-2113
• 12 Chute JP, Muramoto GG, Whitesides J, Colvin M, Safi R, Chao NJ, McDonnell DP. Inhibition of aldehyde dehydrogenase and retinoid signaling induces the expansion of human hematopoietic stem cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2006; 103: 11707-11712
• 13 Ginestier C, Wicinski J, Cervera N, Monville F, Finetti P, Bertucci F, Wicha MS, Birnbaum D, Charafe-Jauffret E. Retinoid signaling regulates breast cancer stem cell differentiation. Cell Cycle 2009; 8: 3297-3302
• 14 Landen Jr CN, Goodman B, Katre AA, Steg AD, Nick AM, Stone RL, Miller LD, Mejia PV, Jennings NB, Gershenson DM, Bast Jr RC, Coleman RL, Lopez-Berestein G, Sood AK. Targeting aldehyde dehydrogenase cancer stem cells in ovarian cancer. Mol Cancer Ther 2010; 9: 3186-3199
• 15 Moreb JS, Ucar D, Han S, Amory JK, Goldstein AS, Ostmark B, Chang LJ. The enzymatic activity of human aldehyde dehydrogenases 1A2 and 2 (ALDH1A2 and ALDH2) is detected by Aldefluor, inhibited by diethylaminobenzaldehyde and has significant effects on cell proliferation and drug resistance. Chem Biol Interact 2012; 195: 52-60
• 16 Malehmir M, Haghpanah V, Larijani B, Ahmadian S, Alimoghaddam K, Heshmat R, Ghavamzadeh A, Adabi K, Ghaffari SH. Multifaceted suppression of aggressive behavior of thyroid carcinoma by all-trans retinoic acid induced re-differentiation. Mol Cell Endocrinol 2012; 348: 260-269