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Gemcitabine constitutes one of the backbones for chemotherapy treatment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), but patients often respond poorly to this agent. Molecular markers downstream of gemcitabine treatment in preclinical models may provide an insight into resistance mechanisms. Using cytokine arrays, we identified potential secretory biomarkers of gemcitabine resistance (response) in the transgenic KRasG12D; Trp53R172H; Pdx-1 Cre (KPC) mouse model of PDAC. We verified the oncogenic role of the cytokine tissue inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinases 1 (TIMP1) in primary pancreatic tumors and metastases using both in vitro techniques and animal models. We identified potential pathways affected downstream of TIMP1 using the Illumina Human H12 array. Our findings were validated in both primary and metastatic models of pancreatic cancer. Gemcitabine increased inflammatory cytokines including TIMP1 in the KPC mouse model. TIMP1 was upregulated in patients with pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias grade 3 and PDAC lesions relative to matched normal pancreatic tissue. In addition, TIMP1 played a role in tumor clonogenic survival and vascular density, while TIMP1 inhibition resensitized tumors to gemcitabine and radiotherapy. We observed a linear relationship between TIMP-1 expression, liver metastatic burden, and infiltration by CD11b+Gr1+ myeloid cells and CD4+CD25+FOXP3+ Tregs, whereas the presence of tumor cells was required for immune cell infiltration. Overall, our results identify TIMP1 upregulation as a resistance mechanism to gemcitabine and provide a rationale for combining chemo/radiotherapy with TIMP1 inhibitors in PDAC. Cancer Res; 77(21); 5952-62. ©2017 AACR.

Original publication

DOI

10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-16-2833

Type

Journal article

Journal

Cancer Res

Publication Date

01/11/2017

Volume

77

Pages

5952 - 5962

Keywords

Animals, Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic, Cell Line, Tumor, Deoxycytidine, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Humans, Liver Neoplasms, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Mice, Knockout, Mice, SCID, Mice, Transgenic, Pancreatic Neoplasms, RNA Interference, Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase-1, Tumor Burden, Tumor Cells, Cultured, Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays, Gemcitabine