TY - JOUR TI - NDRG2 regulates adherens junction integrity to restrict colitis and tumourigenesis AU - Wei, Mengying AU - Ma, Yongzheng AU - Shen, Liangliang AU - Xu, Yuqiao AU - Liu, Lijun AU - Bu, Xin AU - Guo, Zhihao AU - Qin, Hongyan AU - Li, Zengshan AU - Wang, Zhe AU - Wu, Kaichun AU - Yao, Libo AU - Li, Jipeng AU - Zhang, Jian T2 - EBioMedicine AB -

Abstract

Background

Paracellular barriers play an important role in the pathogenesis of Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and maintain gut homeostasis. N-myc downstream-regulated gene 2 (NDRG2) has been reported to be a tumour suppressor gene and to inhibit colorectal cancer metastasis. However, whether NDRG2 affects colitis initiation and colitis-associated colorectal cancer is unclear.

Methods

Intestine-specific Ndrg2 deficiency mice (Ndrg2ΔIEC) were subjected to DSS- or TNBS-induced colitis, and AOM-DSS-induced colitis-associated tumour. HT29 cells, Caco2 cells, primary intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) from Ndrg2ΔIEC mice, mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) from systemic Ndrg2 knockout mice, HEK293 cells and human UC and DC specimens were used to investigate NDRG2 function in colitis and colitis-associated tumour.

Findings

Ndrg2 loss led to adherens junction (AJ) structure destruction via E-cadherin expression attenuation, resulting in diminished epithelial barrier function and increased intestinal epithelial permeability. Mechanistically, NDRG2 enhanced the interaction of E3 ligase FBXO11 with Snail, the repressor of E-cadherin, to promote Snail degradation by ubiquitination and maintained E-cadherin expression. In human ulcerative colitis patients, reduced NDRG2 expression is positively correlated with severe inflammation.

Interpretation

These findings demonstrate that NDRG2 is an essential colonic epithelial barrier regulator and plays an important role in gut homeostasis maintenance and colitis-associated tumour development.

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81770523, 31571437, 81672751), Creative Research Groups of China (No. 81421003), State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology Project (CBSKL2019ZZ11, CBSKL201406, CBSKL2017Z08 and CBSKL2017Z11), Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of ShaanXi province (2019JC-22).

DA - 2020/11/01/ PY - 2020 DO - 10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.103068 DP - www.thelancet.com VL - 61 J2 - EBioMedicine LA - English SN - 2352-3964 UR - https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-3964(20)30444-8/abstract Y2 - 2020/10/30/07:44:17 ER -