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 IJmol/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. 2005 The WJG Press and Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.