Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
doi:10.1038/nature20791
The fact that the identity of the cells that initiate metastasis in most human cancers is unknown hampers the development
of antimetastatic therapies. Here we describe a subpopulation of CD44bright cells in human oral carcinomas that do not
overexpress mesenchymal genes, are slow-cycling, express high levels of the fatty acid receptor CD36 and lipid metabolism
genes, and are unique in their ability to initiate metastasis. Palmitic acid or a high-fat diet specifically boosts the metastatic
potential of CD36+ metastasis-initiating cells in a CD36-dependent manner. The use of neutralizing antibodies to block
CD36 causes almost complete inhibition of metastasis in immunodeficient or immunocompetent orthotopic mouse models
of human oral cancer, with no side effects. Clinically, the presence of CD36+ metastasis-initiating cells correlates with
a poor prognosis for numerous types of carcinomas, and inhibition of CD36 also impairs metastasis, at least in human
melanoma- and breast cancer-derived tumours. Together, our results indicate that metastasis-initiating cells particularly
rely on dietary lipids to promote metastasis.
The mechanisms whereby some tumour cells detach from the primary
lesion to colonize distant sites are still largely unknown. Pro-metastatic
events common to the majority of solid tumours might include the
reversible transition of tumour cells from an epithelial to a mesenchymal state as well as their interactions with stromal components
or tumour-activated stromal cells117. Some tumours also secrete
metastasis-promoting exosomes that contain proteins, mRNAs and
microRNAs to establish a distant pro-metastatic niche9,13,18,19. However,
whether a subpopulation of metastasis-initiating cells exists among
primary tumour-initiating cells is not clear.
When cell lines and patient-derived cells (PDCs) arising from human
oral carcinomas (Methods) were pulsed with a lipophilic fluorescent
dye (DiD) that non-specifically binds to membranes and is diluted
upon cell division20, and were orthotopically injected into the oral
cavity of NOD.Cg-PrkdcscidIl2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ (NSG) mice, we observed
a small percentage of slow-cycling CD44bright/dye+ long-term labelretaining cells (LRCs) within oral lesions (Fig. 1a, b and Extended Data
Fig. 1ak). Thus, the CD44bright population, which have been shown
to have the highest tumour-initiating potential in oral s quamous cell
carcinomas (OSCCs), displayed cell cycle heterogeneity in vivo2123.
Although the transcriptomes of LRCs (CD44bright dye+) and nonLRCs (dye) sorted by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS)
from orthotopic tongue tumours derived from the OSCC cell line
SCC-25 were more similar to each other than to the differentiated
CD44dim population, they still displayed a number of differentially
expressed genes (Extended Data Fig. 2a and Supplementary Table 1a).
Gene ontology analysis indicated that the CD44bright dye signature
was associated with chromosomal instability, cell transformation
and neoplasm and genes involved in the cell cycle, as expected from
a proliferative tumour population (Extended Data Fig. 2b, c and
Supplementary Table 1b). On the other hand, the signature of LRCs
Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), 08028 Barcelona, Spain. 2Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), The Barcelona
Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Dr. Aiguader 88, 08003 Barcelona, Spain. 3IMIM, Department of Dermatology, Hospital del Mar, 08003 Barcelona. 4Vall DHebron Hospital, Barcelona,
Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Universitat Autnoma de Barcelona, Barcelona 08035 Spain. 5Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona,
Spain. 6Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona 08002, Spain.
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
104
102
35.5%
CD44bright
Dye
102
104
100
100
25
20
15
10
5
DiD+
*
CD44
*
104 P value
the parental cells (Extended Data Figs 3bd, 4a). By contrast, primary
tumour growth was only slightly, if at all, enhanced by CD36 overexpression (less than twofold) (Extended Data Figs 3b, 4a). Most
importantly, short hairpin RNA (shRNA)-mediated depletion of CD36
significantly reduced the penetrance of metastasis to lymph nodes, in
some cases by 80100%. Either no or, in one tumour case, only slight
effects on oral lesion growth were observed (Fig. 2a, b and Extended
Data Fig. 4b). Conversely, CD36 depletion greatly reduced the size
of lymph node metastases in all tumour lines, and inhibited lung
metastasis by FaDu cells (Extended Data Fig. 4b-f).
Tumour
Tumour-free
Metastasis
(%)
Met
Met-free
75
50
25
0
Cd36 shRNA
Undifferentiated
SCC
PLKO #98
Primary tumour
1.5
5 105
5 106
LDs
Subcapsular
sinus
Metastasis
**
1.0
0.5
#99
Cd36 shRNA
Cd36 shRNA
Cd36 shRNA
GFP
CD44
DAPI
LDs
PT
shCD36#99
DiD
30
LNMet
(dye+)
Biological process
Response to lipid
Response to bacterium
Lipid metabolic process
Response to oxygen compound
Skin development
102
105 P value
40
35
1018
Primary tumours
(%)
100
PT
CD44
108
PT
shCD36#98
8.07%
CD44dim
Psoriasis
Neoplasms, squamous cell
Skin diseases, papulosquamous
Stomach neoplasms
Carcinoma, squamous cell
Prostatic diseases
Lymphatic metastasis
Neoplasm metastasis
Skin neoplasms
1028 P value
SCC-25
Disease (dye+)
Squamous
differentiation
1,000 m
Cd36 shRNA
LDs
25 m
CD44bright
Dye+
2.37%
CD44bright
Dyelow
16.8%
PLKO
DiD dye
GFP+Lin
106
GFP
DAPI
Bodipy-568
100 m
In all OSCC cell lines and PDCs tested, CD36+ CD44bright cells were
always enriched at metastatic sites with respect to primary oral lesions
(Extended Data Fig. 7d). In addition, knockdown and o
verexpression
of CD36 inhibited and upregulated, respectively, the expression of
genes associated with the metastatic process (Extended Data Fig. 7e).
We next FACS-sorted CD36+ and CD36 cells from OSCC cells co-
cultured with adipocytes derived from mouse mesenchymal OP9 cells
and then orthotopically inoculated them separately into NSG mice
(Extended Data Fig. 7f, g). Under these co-culture conditions, Cd36
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ARTICLE RESEARCH
CTD
1.5
2
2
1
0
1.8 107
100
75
50
25
0
Metastasis (%)
PT
et
-M
Lys164mut
Tumour
Tumour-free
LN
3 105
**
**
2.0
1.5
1.0
Unt Ct shCD36
PA 0.4 mM
Met
Met-free
Unt Ct shCD36
PA 0.4 mM
Primary tumour
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
P = 5.47 1021
1/2,000
Metastasis
****
P = 0.147 (NS)
P = 0.0747 (NS)
1/500
1/665
1/3,000
1/5,000
1/1,000
1/25,000
ht
ig
SCC-25
ht
Detroit-562
ig
SCC-25
D3
D4 6
4 br
Detroit-562
D3
6+
D3
C
D4 6
4 br
1/2,000
1/5,0000
25
25
P = 0.772 (NS)
P = 6.06 106
75
50
TIC frequency
P = 3.43 1010
1/2,500
50
MIC frequency
Tumour
Tumour-free
Metastasis (%)
**
* ***
D3
6+
Unt Ct shCD36
PA 0.4 mM
Met
Met-free
**
Met
Met-free
HFD
VDH-02
CD36wt
75
0.5
0
CTD
2.5
**
0.5
PL
sh KO
C
D3
6
PL
sh KO
C
D3
6
PL
sh KO
C
D3
6
PL
sh KO
C
D3
6
HFD
1.0
CTD
-M
et PT
LN
HFD
25
Unt Ct shCD36
PA 0.4 mM
Metastasis
Primary tumour
Metastasis
6
** ****
Primary tumour
4
6 106
*
100
100
6 105
HFD
CTD
CTD
HFD
25
Metastasis (%)
50
PLKO
Palmitic acid 0.4 mM
Cd36 shRNA
Palmitic acid 0.4 mM
CTD
50
75
et
8 105
Metastasis (%)
Met
Met-free
Cd36
PLKO shRNA
lu
ng
-
Tumour
Tumour-free
Cd36
PLKO shRNA
75
PLKO
untreated
shCD36#98#99
PLKO
100
LN
shCD36#98#99
PLKO
Tumour
Tumour-free
100
SCC-25
Pa
re
n
C tal
D3
6+
C
D3
6
Pa
re
nt
C al
D3
C 6+
D3
6
Pa
re
n
C tal
D3
C 6+
D3
6
Pa
re
n
C tal
D3
C 6+
D3
6
b
-M
et PT
8 106
HFD
Detroit-562
PT
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
b
LN-Met BLI
6 Anti-CD36 JC63.1 (g per day)
[5]
5
[10]
[20]
4
3 Daily injection
start of treatment
2
1
0
12
75
50
25
0
18 Days
Primary tumour
(NS)
Online Content Methods, along with any additional Extended Data display items and
Source Data, are available in the online version of the paper; references unique to
these sections appear only in the online paper.
IgA
Anti-CD36
JC63.1
Anti-CD36
JC63.1
5 10
10
20
20 g per day
Met remission
Met
100
100
16
**
1.0
0.5
Metastasis
IgA
Tumour-free
Tumour
Primary tumours (%)
1.5
Relative photon flux
IgA Anti-CD36
JC63.1
LDs
75
50
25
0
LN-Met
IgA
500 m
LN-Met
Anti-CD36 JC63 .1
500 m
IgA Anti-CD36
JC63.1
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ARTICLE RESEARCH
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Supplementary Information is available in the online version of the paper.
Acknowledgements Research in the laboratory of S.A.B. for this project is
supported by the European Research Council (ERC), the Government of
Catalua (SGR grant), and the Fundacin Botn and Banco Santander, through
Santander Universities. We would like to thank the Beug Stiftung Foundation for
their support. S.M. was supported by a La Caixa International PhD fellowship.
A.A. was supported by an EU Cofound postdoctoral fellowship. L.D.C. was
supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Educacin y Ciencia (SAF201348926-P) and the European Commissions 7th Framework Program 4DCellFate
grant number 277899. We thank the Vall DHebron Research Institute Tumor
Biobank for their assistance with the human samples. We also thank R. Wong
for the Ln-7 cell line and J. Zuber for the PMSCV-Luc2-PGKneo-Ires GFP vector.
IRB Barcelona is the recipient of a Severo Ochoa Award of Excellence from
MINECO (Government of Spain). We thank V. Raker for manuscript editing.
Author Contributions G.P. and S.A.B. designed all experiments. G.P. performed
all experiments with the help of M.M. for the histological characterization of the
lipotoxicity and A.C. for the analysis of the gene expression data. A.A. established
the patient-derived cells and the oral cancer orthotopic method. C.S.-O.A. and
A.B. performed statistical analyses. J.A.H., C.B. and A.T. provided the tumours
from patients. S.M. established the dye protocol to detect LRCs. N.P. performed
the histopathology analysis of the mice. L.D.C. analysed expression data.
G.P. and S.A.B. wrote the manuscript.
Author Information Reprints and permissions information is available at
www.nature.com/reprints. The authors declare no competing financial
interests. Readers are welcome to comment on the online version of the paper.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to
S.A.B. (salvador.aznar-benitah@irbbarcelona.org).
Reviewer Information Nature thanks A. Harris and the other anonymous
reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
METHODS
Animal studies. The institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of IRB
Barcelona approved all animal procedures. NOD.Cg-Prkdcscid Il2rgtm1Wjl/SzJ
(NSG) mice were purchased from Charles River and crossed in-house. C3H/
HeJ (000659) mice were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory. All mice were
housed under a regimen of 12h light/12h dark cycles and specific pathogen-free
conditions, and all procedures were evaluated and approved by the CEEA (Ethical
Committee for Animal Experimentation) of the Government of Catalonia. To
establish patient-derived tumour cells, tumours were implanted subcutaneously
into NSG mice immediately after tumour resection from the patient. Once the
tumours had grown, they were collected and disaggregated, and tumour cells
were FACS-sorted and cultured as described below. For 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine
(BrdU) labelling experiments, mice were injected intraperitoneally with a single
dose of 100g g1 BrdU (Invitrogen) and then analysed 24h later. Intra-tongue
injections of OSCC cells were performed as previously described47,48. Briefly,
mice were anaesthetized by intraperitoneal injection with a mixture of 50mg kg1
ketamine and 0.5mg kg1 medetomidin, and OSCC cells resuspended in 30l
PBS were injected into each mouse tongue with a BD ultra-fine 6-mm needle.
For intravenous tumour cell injection, mice were anaesthetized with continuous
administration of isofluorane gas and were injected by retro-orbital injection with
100,000 cells in 100l PBS. Mice were monitored for the luciferase bioluminescent
signal immediately after injection (T0) and once weekly thereafter with a Xenogen
IVIS Imaging System-100 (Caliper Life Sciences). For this, mice were injected
by retro-orbital injection with 50l d-luciferin (Promega) diluted in 1 PBS at
5mg ml1. Continuous administration of isofluorane gas was provided to maintain
anaesthesia of animals during imaging. Data were quantified with Living Image
software version 4.4 (Caliper Life Sciences). Quantifications were calculated with
unsaturated pixels. Colour scale minimum and maximum values are shown in
images.
For intravenous injections of MCF-7 breast cancer cells, a pellet of 17--
oestradiol (0.18mg per pellet, 60-day release; Innovative Research of America)
was implanted subcutaneously into 8-week-old NSG female mice 3days before
intravenous injection. Mice injected with MCF-7 or 501mel cells were analysed
for BLI 6 or 4 weeks post-inoculation, respectively.
To treat mice in vivo with neutralizing anti-CD36 antibodies, mice were injected
intraperitoneally with 100l of physiological serum containing either 2.5g of
neutralizing monoclonal anti-CD36 FA6.152 (Abcam, ab17044) or 2.5g of the
corresponding IgG1 (mouse IgG1 monoclonal NCG01, Abcam, ab81032), and
with 100l of physiological serum containing 5g, 10 g or 20g of neutralizing
monoclonal anti-CD36 JC63.1 (CAYMAN, CAY-10009893-500) or 5g, 10 g or
20g of the corresponding IgA (mouse IgA, kappa [S107], Abcam, ab37322). All
antibodies were azide-free with no added preservatives.
For the toxicological analysis regarding anti-CD36 JC63.1 treatment in
immunocompetent mice, mouse SCC Ln-7 cells were injected into the tongues
of 8-week-old syngeneic C3H/HeJ mice. When metastatic signals appeared, mice
were distributed homogeneously into groups and daily injected i ntraperitoneally
with anti-CD36 JC63.1 (10g) or the corresponding IgA control isotype as
described above.
High-fat diet experiments were performed by feeding the mice with a 60/Fat
Research diet (TD.06414, Harlan) for 7 days before inoculating the mice with
the tumour cells and thereafter. Normal diet was used for control groups. For
doxycycline treatment, mice were treated continuously with 50g ml1 of fresh
doxycycline in light-protected drinking water that contained 5% sucrose. Glucose
levels were measured once a week at a controlled time by using a glucometer
(BAYER, ContourRnext).
For each experiment, mice were killed at the same time, once an experimental
group reached the humane endpoint (46 weeks after the orthotopic injection
as soon as mice started to lose weight owing to the growth of the oral lesion).
The endpoint procedure was approved by the institutional Animal Care and Use
Committee of IRB Barcelona.
Animal tissue was collected and fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde (PFA) for 2h
at room temperature and then either embedded in OCT and frozen at 80 C or
dehydrated and embedded in paraffin. Toxicological analysis was performed at the
Histopathology Facility according to standard procedures.
Total blood samples from mice were collected from the inferior vena cava and
then processed in the Experimental Toxicology and Ecotoxicology Unit (PCB)
following standard procedures.
The investigators were not blinded to allocation during experiments and
outcome assessment.
Characterization of oral carcinoma orthotopic transplants. We used an
orthotopic model of human oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) to study the
cell cycle heterogeneity of tumour cells in vivo49, first examining for slow-cycling
cancer cells, which have been shown to have high primary tumour-initiating
otential in several tumour types, and have been previously identified in OSCC cell
p
lines5053. We implanted human OSCC cells from established cell lines (SCC-25,
FaDu, Detroit-562 and JHU-029) or from three primary PDCs, transduced with a
retroviral vector expressing luciferase-GFP (Luc-GFP), into the tongue of immunosuppressed NSG mice. All cell lines and PDCs generated primary tumours with
100% penetrance, albeit with differing growth kinetics (Extended Data Fig. 1a, b).
This orthotopic model of OSCC recapitulated the metastatic spread to lymph
nodes that occurs in patients. However, the penetrance of lymph node c olonization
between different tumour cells was much more variable than primary tumour
growth, varying from very high to low, and lung metastasis was observed only in
mice injected with FaDu cells (Extended Data Fig. 1ac).
Clinical material. Biological samples were obtained from patients from the
Hospital Vall dHebron (Barcelona, Spain) under informed consent and approval
of the Bank of Tumour Committees of the hospital according to Spanish ethical
regulations. The study followed the guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and
patient identity and pathological specimens remained anonymous in the context
of the study.
Plasmids. The MSCV-IRES-Luciferase-GFP retrovirus was kindly provided by
J. Zuber (Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), Vienna Biocentre,
Austria)54. Cd36 and Acsl1 knockdown experiments were conducted using
lentiviral shRNAs targeting the selected gene (Sigma Aldrich and Dharmacon,
respectively). A non-targeting shRNA sequence was used as a control (pLKO.1TRC control; Addgene, plasmid #10879) (Supplementary Table 9). CD36
overexpression experiments were conducted by cloning CD36 cDNA into the
lentiviral PMSCV vector. Empty vector was used as control. The CD36-K164A
mutant construct was made using QuikChange II XL Site-Directed Mutagenesis
Kit (Catalog #200521, Agilent Technologies), following the manufacturers
instructions, with the primer pair K164A Fwd and K164A Rvs and the plasmid
pMSVCD36OE as template. The sequence of the CD36Lys164mut plasmid was
checked by Sanger sequencing (Supplementary Table 10).
Cell culture. All cells were cultured in a humidified incubator at 37C with 5%
CO2. No method of cell line authentication was performed for the different cell
lines used. SCC-25 (ATCCR CRL-168TM) and patient-derived cells (VDH-00,
VDH-01 and VDH-02) were grown in keratinocyte serum-free medium (KSFM,
GIBCO) supplemented with 5g ml1 penicillin/streptomycin, 0.025mg ml1
bovine pituitary extract and 0.2g ml1 hEGF. JHU-029 cells (Johns Hopkins
University) were grown in RPMI (GIBCO) supplemented with 5g ml1 penicillin/
streptomycin and 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS; GIBCO). FaDu (ATCCR HTB43TM) and Detroit-562 (ATCCR CCL-138TM) cells were grown in EMEM (LONZA)
supplemented with 5g ml1 penicillin/streptomycin and 10% FBS (GIBCO).
The mouse SCC Ln-7 cell line, kindly provided by R. Wong (Department of
Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, USA)55, was grown
in EMEM (LONZA) s upplemented with 5g ml1 penicillin/streptomycin and
10% FBS (GIBCO). MCF-7 cells (ATCCR HTB-22TM) were grown in EMEM
(LONZA) supplemented with 5g ml1 penicillin/streptomycin, 0.01mg ml1
human recombinant insulin and 10% FBS (GIBCO). The 501mel human cell
line (kindly provided by C. Wellbrock, Manchester Cancer Research Centre,
The University of Manchester, UK) was grown in DMEM supplemented with
5g ml1 penicillin/streptomycin and 10% FBS (GIBCO). HNACFS (head and
neck tumourassociated fibroblasts) were grown in DMEM supplemented with
5g ml1 penicillin/streptomycin, 10% FBS (GIBCO) and 1 insulin transferrin
selenium G supplement (Invitrogen). OP9 cells were cultured and differentiated
into adipocytes as previously described56. Briefly, cells were cultured and amplified
in MEM alpha medium +glutaMAXTM (MEM-, GIBCO) supplemented with
20% FBS (GIBCO) and 5g ml1 penicillin/streptomycin. To differentiate them
into adipocytes, OP-9 cells were grown to confluency and then cultured for
two additional days in MEM-supplemented with 15% KnockOutTM Serum
Replacement (GIBCO) and 5g ml1 penicillin/streptomycin. For co-culture
experiments, OSCC cells were seeded over confluent adipogenic OP9 cells for 12to 48h at 37C with 5% CO2. PhoenixA and 293T cells grown in DMEM/10% FBS
were used for retrovirus and lentivirus production, respectively, after transfection
with the CaCl2 method. For selection, 2.5g ml1 puromycin or 0.3mg ml1
G418 was added to the medium. All cell lines tested negative for mycoplasma
contamination. For label-retaining experiments, cells were trypsinised with 0.25%
trypsin-EDTA (GIBCO), washed twice in 1PBS and incubated with VybrantR
DiD (Molecular Probes, V-22887) at a 1:200 dilution in 1PBS for 20min at
37C. After incubation, cells were washed twice with 1PBS to remove excessive
dye. Note that the dye homogeneously coated all cells in culture and was undetectable by FACS after an average of eight cell divisions. For treatment of OSCC
cells with palmitic acid, sodium palmitate (P9767, SIGMA) was prepared as a
2.5mM stock solution by dissolving it in 1ml of 0.1M NaOH and warming at
80C until clear. The fatty acid solution was complexed with fatty acid-free BSA
(A7030, SIGMA) in a molar ratio fatty acid:BSA of 5:1; briefly, 0.325g of BSA was
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ARTICLE RESEARCH
dissolved in 8ml 0.9% NaCl, and the mixture was warmed to 45C. The clear
solution of palmitate was added drop-by-drop by pipette with agitation. The final
stock solution was filtered at 0.45m, aliquoted and stored at 20C. OSCC cells
growing in serum-free medium were treated in vitro with 0.4mM palmitate for
48h. For intra-tongue injections of OSCC cells, cultured cells were trypsinized
with trypsin-0.25% EDTA (GIBCO) diluted in PBS/trypan blue and resuspended
in 1PBS. For SCC-25 and JHU-029 cells, 100,000 cells per mouse were injected;
for FaDu, Detroit-562, Ln-7 and patient-derived cells, 50,000 cells per mouse were
injected. For l imiting dilution assays, serial dilutions (50,000, 20,000, 10,000, 1,000
or 100 cells) of sorted CD44bright, CD36+ CD44bright or CD36 CD44bright OSCC
cells were injected immediately after sorting into the tongues of NSG mice. For
intravenous i njection, 100,000 cells in 1PBS were injected by retro-orbital
injection. Mice were monitored by bioluminescence determination for positive
response of primary tumour and/or metastasis growth. The active cell frequency
of tumour-initiating cells or metastasis-initiating cells was estimated by s tatistical
analysis 60days after injection (humane endpoint) using the ELDA software
(http://bioinf.wehi.edu.au/software/elda/)57.
The fatty acid uptake assay was performed using the QBT Fatty Acid Uptake
Assay Explorer Kit (Molecular Devices), according to the manufacturers
instructions. Briefly, OSCC cells were grown in adipogenic-conditioned medium
for 72h and collected, and seeded in a 96-well-plate at a density of 50,000 cells per
well, with 100l adipogenic-conditioned medium. After 24h, cells were deprived of
serum and incubated for 1h at 37C with 5% CO2. Plates were read using a Biotek
FL600 Fluroescence instrument, using bottom reading, medium sensitivity (150),
excitation 488/emission 515, and a filter cutoff of 495nm.
Tumour disaggregation from xenografted mice. Tumours were isolated from
mice, and connective tissue was removed to the largest extent possible. Tissue was
chopped in 0.5% trypsin 1-300 (MP Biomedical) in KSFM medium (GIBCO)
in a McIlwain Tissue Chopper. After complete homogenization, samples were
incubated at 37C for 90min with shaking. Homogenates were filtered sequentially
in 100m, 70 m and 40m BD strainers and centrifuged at 1,000 rpm for 10min
at 4C. Supernatant was discarded, and each pellet was resuspended in 1 PBS/4%
calcium-chelated FBS7 for antibody staining and subsequent FACS analysis.
FACS analysis. For orthotopic transplant analysis, samples were incubated for
45min at room temperature with anti-CD36-PercP-EFluor 710 (ref. 46-036941, E Bioscience) and anti-CD44-PeCy7 (CD44 Clone GG-26, ref. 560533,
BD Pharmigen) at 1:100 dilution, and, to exclude contaminant mouse cells, a
lineage-negative cocktail conjugated to biotin composed of anti-CD31 clone
MEC13.3 (ref. 553371, BD Pharmigen, 1:200 dilution), anti-CD45 clone 30-F11
(ref. 13-045-81, eBioscience, 1:200 dilution) and anti-H2Kd (ref. 553564,
eBioscience, 1:200 dilution). After the first incubation, samples were washed in
1 PBS/calcium-chelated FBS58, spun for the second incubation with Brilliant
Violet (BV) 605 streptavidin (ref. 405229, Biolegend, 1:50 dilution) for 30min at
room temperature and then resuspended in 1PBS/4% calcium-chelated FBS with
DAPI at a 1:1,000 dilution, for FACS analysis. To analyse the co-cultures of OSCC
cells with adipocytes or tumour-associated fibroblasts, samples were incubated
for 45min at room temperature with anti-CD36-PercP-EFluor 710 (ref. 46-036941, E Bioscience) as well as with a mouse/rat anti-CD29-APC, clone HM11
(ref. 1002216) to exclude adipocytes. Unstained and single-colour controls were
used in each case. Samples were analysed in a BD FACS ARIA FUSION instrument.
For FACS sorting, cells were selected on the basis of their forward and side scatter
excluding cellular debris. Doublets and dead cells were eliminated by DAPI or
propidium iodide. GFP-positive cells were gated excluding the lineage-BV positive
cells. This population was selected for further analysis or were directly injected
into the tongues of the mice.
Fatty acid oxidation enzymes were measured by flow cytometry with the Fatty
Acid Oxidation Human Flow Cytometry Kit (Abcam, ab118183), according to the
manufacturers specifications.
Immunofluorescence and histological analysis. Cryo- or de-paraffinized
antigen-retrieved 8-m sections (treated for 10min in boiling 0.01 M citric acid,
pH 6.0) were permeabilized for 25min in 0.25% Triton X-100/PBS and blocked
for 90min in 0.25% gelatin/PBS. Primary antibodies were incubated overnight
at 4C, and secondary antibodies were incubated for 2h at room temperature in
0.25% gelatin/PBS. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (1:5,000, Roche), and slides
were mounted in Mowiol. The primary antibodies used were rat anti-CD44 at
1:100 (eBioscience), rabbit anti-caspase3 (abcam, ab13847) and rabbit anti-GFP at
1:1,000 (Life Technologies). DiD (D-7757, Molecular Probes) dye was analysed by
direct immunofluorescence. The secondary antibodies used were conjugated with
Alexa Fluor (R37118, A-11006, A-10042, A-11077, Molecular Probes). For neutral
lipid droplet visualization, frozen cryosections were stained with BODIPY 558/568
C12 (Molecular Probes, D-3835) as previously described59. Haematoxylin and eosin
staining was done according to the standard protocol. Images were acquired using
a Nikon E600+Olympus DP72, Leica SPE or a Leica TCS SP5 confocal microscope.
Representative pictures were selected in each case.
Gene expression analysis. RNA isolation and cDNA amplification were p
erformed
as described60. In brief, cells were sorted into lysis buffer, and RNA was p
urified
using magnetic beads (RNAClean XP beads, Agencourt). RNA was reverse
transcribed, and cDNA was amplified using whole transcriptome a mplification
chemistry (WTA2, Sigma Aldrich). Amplification was monitored by SYBR
Green addition to the reaction and was stopped when the SYBR Green signal
reached a plateau. cDNA was purified using a Purelink Quick PCR purification
kit (Invitrogen). cDNA was labelled using GeneChip Mapping 250K Nsp Assay Kit
(Affymetrix; catalogue # 900766), according to the manufacturers instructions.
Affymetrix PrimeView arrays were hybridized with 8mg labelled cDNA, washed,
stained and scanned according to the protocol described in the GeneChip 3 IVT
Express Kit User Manual. Arrays were scanned with GeneChip scanner 3000
(Affymetrix). Normalized expression signals were calculated from Affymetrix CEL
files using the RMA algorithm61. Log2 RMA expression was estimated.
For Agilent microarrays, total RNA was extracted from FACS-sorted cells
with the RNAClean XP kit Agentcourt A63987 following the manufacturers
instructions and immediately amplified using the TransPlex Complete Whole
Transcriptome Amplification Kit (Sigma WTA2) to generate cDNA. Cyanine-3
(Cy3)-labelled cDNA was prepared from 500ng double-stranded cDNA using the
DNA Enzymatic Labelling Kit (Agilent 5190-0449) according to the manufacturers
instructions, followed by column purification (Amicon 30 kDa). Dye incorporation
and cDNA yield were checked with a NanoDrop ND-1000 Spectophotometer.
Arrays were scanned with an Agilent G2539A scanner at 3-m resolution and
100% PMT. Intensity data of the individual hybridizations were extracted, and
data quality was assessed using Feature Extraction software 10.7 (Agilent). Raw
data were corrected for background noise using the normexp method. Quantile
normalization was applied to assure comparability across samples. Normalized log2
intensity values were estimated. The relative log2 ratios of DiD/DiD+, DiD/
CD44dim and DiD+/CD44dim were calculated, respectively, and genes were filtered
based on a log2 ratio DiD/DiD+ equal to or greater than 1.5; P 0.005.
Gene expression analysis for comparing the transcriptomes of CD36+ and
CD36+ cells was performed using R62 and Bioconductor63. Affymetrix microarrays
were processed using RMA normalization as implemented in the Bioconductor
R package affy63. Data were annotated using probeset information provided by
Affymetrix in its product support website (http://www.affymetrix.com/support).
Differential expression analysis between CD36+ and CD36+ samples was carried
out at the probeset level using moderated t-statistics by empirical Bayes shrinkage
as implemented in the limma R package64. For this, a linear model was fitted
using biological replicate as a random effect (functions duplicateCorrelation and
lmFit)19. The BenjaminiHochberg correction65 was applied for multiple contrast
adjustment. Geneset enrichment analysis (GSEA)66 was used to assess the enrichment of a fatty acid metabolism geneset from the Hallmark geneset collection
provided by the Broad Institute Molecular Signature Database (MsigDB-H; KEGG
FATTY ACID METABOLISM; downloaded 15/07/2015)66. In these analyses,
probesets were collapsed to gene level by selecting the probeset showing the h
ighest
standard deviation within each gene. Genes were ranked according to their fold
changes between conditions.
Genomatix software suite v3.4 (http://www.genomatix.de/)67 was also used
for gene ontology and pathway analysis. Using the Genomatix Software, pathway
analysis is based on data mining of PubMed, referring to Biocarta, STKE or KEGG.
The complete data set was deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology
Information Gene Expression Omnibus Database (GEO)68 with the accession
number GSE72939.
Real-time PCR. Real-time PCR using TaqMan gene expression probes (Applied
Biosystems) (Supplementary Table 11) was performed and analysed using a 7900HT Fast Real-time PCR Instrument (Applied Biosystems). Relative expression
levels were determined by normalization to human -2-microglobulin (b2m) using
the Ct method.
Bioinformatics analysis. Data from the TCGA project were downloaded from
cbioportal69,70. Expression data computed as mRNA z-scores (RNA Seq V2 RSEM,
Agilent) were compared to the expression distribution of each gene tumour
diploid for the queried gene. For luminal A breast cancer, staging information
mapped to the seventh edition of the Cancer Genome Atlas Network was used, as
previously described71. Stage subclassifications were collapsed to stages I, II, III
and IV. Expression of the gene signature was computed by averaging all genes in
signature for each patient. Both the CD36 and signature expressions were scaled
before fitting the model. A Cox model was fitted to overall survival and disease-free
survival data, using stage, gender, age and histological subtype as covariates. The
significance of the association between expression and survival was assessed with
a Likelihood Ratio Test as implemented in the R function drop1.
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Statistical analysis. For all the experiments, adequate sample size was determined
using the results of pilot studies. No statistical method was used to determine
sample size. All animals that fulfilled proper experimental conditions during
the experimental procedures were included in the analysis. Based on the results
of pilot studies, homogeneous groups of 8- to 10-week-old male and female
experimental mice and their control littermates were used for the s tudies. No
statistically differences were found regarding the gender of mice, and no previously
described randomization method was used. For FACS and RTpPCR analysis,
animals belonging to each experimental group were sub-divided generally
into n=34groups (containing at least two animals per group), pulled within
group and n was considered as a biological replicate. Data are generally shown
as the means.e.m. Statistical significance was analysed using Prism 6 software
(GraphPad) by using a two-tailed t-test, MannWhitney U test, Fishers exact test
or hypergeometric test. Significance was considered at P 0.05.
Data availability. The data sets generated during and/or analysed during the
current study are available in the GEO repository (accession number GSE72939).
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Extended Data Figure 1 | Orthotopically inoculated human oral
squamous cell carcinomas contain a slow-cycling sub-population of
CD44bright cells. a, Overview of the tumorigenic and metastatic activities
of the different OSCC cell lines injected into the tongues of NSG mice.
b, Tumour development from mice injected with OSCC-pLuc-GFP
cells (using the cell lines indicated). Tumour growth was monitored by
bioluminescence imaging (BLI) over a four-week period. Data are given
as the mean s.e.m. c, Frequency of metastases in the lymph nodes.
ac, Detroit-562 cells, two independent experiments: exp. 1 n= 10 mice;
exp. 2 n=11 mice; VDH-02, n=20 mice; VDH-01, n=20 mice; VDH-00,
n=8 mice; SCC-25, three independent experiments: exp. 1 n= 13 mice,
exp. 2 n=17 mice, exp. 3 n=7 mice; JHU-029, three independent
experiments, n=12 mice per experiment; FaDu, two independent
experiments, exp. 1 n=14 mice, exp. 2 n= 5 mice. d, Immunofluorescence
analysis of in vitro cultured OSCC-RFP cells pulsed with DID and grown
in 2D culture for 16days. e, f, Flow cytometry analysis of dye-pulsed OSCC
cells in vitro showing the kinetics of dye dilution. Data are given as mean
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Extended Data Figure 2 | Oral SCC label-retaining cells are defined
by a lipid metabolism and metastasis transcriptome signature.
a, Microarray analysis and heatmap of mRNA expression showing
differentially expressed genes in dye+, dye and CD44dim cells. n= 4
biological replicates and 8 mice per replicate. b, Gene ontology (GO)
analysis showing the top categories for diseases, biological processes and
signal transduction pathways that were upregulated in the proliferative
active (DID) as compared to LR-CSCs (DID+) populations. The resulting
GO terms highlighted cell cyclerelated categories. c, Over-represented
genes in Dye+ and Dye populations. d, Lipid metabolism genes
over-represented in dye+ cells. e, Gene ontology (GO) analysis showing
top diseases and biological processes categories upregulated in the DID+
(LR-CSCs) and DID (proliferative) sorted populations from dye-pulsed
Detroit-562 tumours analysed by microarrays. f, RTqPCR validation by
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Extended Data Figure 3 | LRCs correspond to CD36+ cells, and CD36
overexpression promotes metastatic initiation and progression.
a, CD36+ CD44bright OSCC cells detected by flow cytometry analysis of
tumours from orthotopic transplants. Tumours were obtained from OSCC
Detroit-562 (three independent experiments: exp. 1 n=3, exp. 2 n= 3,
exp. 3 n=4 mice), JHU-029 (three independent experiments: exp. 1 n= 3,
exp. 2 n=3, exp. 3 n=4 mice), SCC-25 (n=8 mice), FaDu (n= 8 mice),
VDH-00 (n=8 mice), VDH-01 (n=8 mice) and VDH-02 cells (n= 8
mice). Numbers indicate CD44bright CD36bright or CD44bright CD36low cells
in the represented gate, expressed as percentages from the total GFP+
Lin OSCC parental tumour. Histograms show the correlation between
CD36 expression and the DID content. The average counted events as
a function of dye fluorescence intensity is reported for each population
CD44bright CD36bright and CD44bright CD36low. b, BLI monitoring of
tumours generated by SCC-25 cells (empty vector (EV) n= 7 and Cd36
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Extended Data Figure 4 | Depletion of CD36 inhibits metastatic
initiation and progression. a, BLI signal quantifications (*P= 0.01, twotailed t-test) and frequency of developed tumours (*P= 0.04, two-tailed
Fishers exact test) of PMSCV-EV and CD36overexpressing tumours
from VDH-00 primary cell line (PMSCV-EV, n= 7; CD36OE, n= 8).
b, BLI monitoring of tumours from FaDu cell line transduced with
either PLKO or shRNA CD36 (two independent experiments: exp1. and
exp.2, n=5 mice per group). Graphs show the frequency of developed
tumours, and BLI signal quantification (metastasis lymph node, *P= 0.05;
metastasis lung, **P= 0.002; two-tailed t-test). c, d, Flow cytometry
analysis of tumours from OSCC cells transduced with PLKO or shRNA
CD36#99. Numbers indicate the percentages of CD44bright CD36+,
CD44bright CD36 or CD44dim cells in the represented gate (n= 6 animals
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Extended Data Figure 5 | CD36+ cells are defined by a lipid metabolism
and metastatic signature, and require the fatty acid -oxidation
enzyme ACSL1 to promote metastasis. a, b, Top categories for diseases
(a) and biological process (b) upregulated in CD36+ CD44bright cells.
c, Gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) plot of CD36-associated
signatures, highlighting strong enrichment for fatty acid metabolism.
NES denotes normalized enrichment score. d, Comparative analysis
of overlapping genes between CD36+ CD44bright and CD44bright DID+
upregulated signature, highlighting over-represented genes associated
with lipid metabolism, cancer invasion and metastasis and transport
and metabolism of nucleoside drugs. P= 1.359 1016, hypergeometric
test. e, Flow cytometry analysis of in vitro SCC-25 cells co-cultured with
adipogenic OP-9 cells, showing the expression of three enzymes of fatty
acid -oxidation (ACADVL, ACADM and HADHA). Histograms show
the average normalized number of events as a function of fluorescence
intensity for the three enzymes (n=2 biological replicates). f, BLI
monitoring of tumours generated from OSCC cells transduced with
either scrambled shRNA (SCR, n=5 mice) or shRNA ACSL1#936
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Extended Data Figure 6 | CD36+ cells are stimulated by a high-fat
diet or adipocyte-conditioned medium, and require the ability of
CD36 to internalize fatty acids for their pro-metastatic potential.
a, Flow cytometry analysis of orthotopic transplants of Detroit-562 cells
transduced with PLKO or shRNACD36#98 or #99, from mice fed with
high-fat diet (HFD) or control diet (CD), analysed 4weeks after OSCC
injection. Numbers indicate CD44bright CD36+, CD44bright CD36 and
CD44dim (differentiated) cells in the represented gate, expressed as
percentages from the total GFP+ Lin OSCC parental tumour. n= 5
animals per group. b, Flow cytometry analysis of co-cultured SCC-25/
OP-9, SCC-25/adipogenic OP9 or SCC-25/HNCAFS (head and neck
cancerassociated fibroblasts) cells. Numbers indicate CD36+cells in the
represented gate, expressed as percentage. c, FACS analysis of co-cultured
Detroit-562 or SCC-25 with OP9 (control) or adipogenic OP9, showing
an increase in the percentage of CD36-positive cells in the adipogenic cocultures. Numbers indicate CD44bright CD36+ and CD44bright CD36 from
the total GFP+CD29 OSCC cells. d, CD36 mRNA relative expression
levels, measured by RTqPCR, from SCC-25 CD36 sorted cells either
co-cultured with adipogenic OP9 (Ad.OP9) cells or not, or from SCC-25
CD36+ sorted cells co-cultured with Ad.OP9 cells. In bd, OSCC were
co-cultured in vitro for 2days. e, Flow cytometry analysis of OSCC cells
co-cultured with adipogenic OP-9 cells or with 0.4mM palmitic acid
(PA). Histograms show the average normalized number of events as a
function of CD36 and CD44 fluorescence intensity. f, cDNA and amino
acid sequence of the CD36 receptor at the level of the point mutation
introduced to generate the fatty acid-binding site mutant, CD36-K164A
(left). Fatty acid uptake assay is shown for SCC-25 cells not transduced
(as control, CT) or transduced with CD36wt (overexpressing wild-type
CD36), shRNA Cd36 or CD36-K164A. g, BLI monitoring of transplants
from SCC-25 cells overexpressing CD36wt (wild-type, n= 10) or
CD36-K164A (n=10). Frequency of developed tumours is expressed as
percentage (*P=0.02, Fisher exact test), and BLI signal quantification is
expressed as the relative normalized photon flux (* P=0.05, two-tailed
t-test). Data are given as the mean s.e.m. h, FACS analysis of OSCC
cells overexpressing either CD36 wild-type (wt) or mutant (Lys164mut).
Histograms show the average normalized number of events as a function
of CD36 and CD44 fluorescence intensity. Source data from mouse
experiments are in Supplementary Information.
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Extended Data Figure 7 | Inhibition of CD36 results in metastatic
lipotoxicity, and CD36+ cells are the only cells capable of initiating
metastasis. a, Representative haematoxylin and eosin staining of
metastatic lymph nodes from SCC-25-pLucGFP transplants with
overexpressed wild-type CD36 or CD36-K164A. Dashed line denotes the
areas surrounded by lipid droplets in the CD36-K164A-expressing cells.
b, c, Caspase-3 immunostaining of the metastases reported in a and in
Cd36 shRNA FaDu-pLucGFP metastatic lymph nodes, showing activated
casp-3-positive apoptotic cells in the vicinity of droplets. d, Relative
expression levels expressed as percentages of four populations, CD36+
CD44bright, CD36+ CD44dim, CD36 CD44bright and CD36 CD44dim, as
determined by FACS analysis of the primary tumour and metastasis of the
OSCC cell lines SCC-25, JHU-029, Detroit-562 and FaDu and the PDCs
VDH-00, VDH-01 and VDH-02 (n=4 biological replicates per cell line).
e, Genes differentially expressed between CD36+ CD44bright and CD36+
CD44bright populations validated by RTqPCR with human-specific
TaqMan gene expression assays in SCC-25 EV (empty vector), SCC-25
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