IL-17B activated mesenchymal stem cells enhance proliferation and migration of gastric cancer cells

// Qingli Bie 1, * , Bin Zhang 1, * , Caixia Sun 2 , Xiaoyun Ji 1 , Prince Amoah Barnie 3 , Chen Qi 1 , Jingjing Peng 1 , Danyi Zhang 1 , Dong Zheng 1 , Zhaoliang Su 1 , Shengjun Wang 1, 4 , Huaxi Xu 1, 4 1 Department of Immunology, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China 2 Department of Anesthesiology, The Affiliated Hospital of Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China 3 Department of Biomedical and Forensic Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana 4 Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medicine of Jiangsu Province, School of Medicine, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China * These authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Huaxi Xu, email: xuhx@ujs.edu.cn Shengjun Wang, email: sjwjsu@aliyun.com Keywords: gastric cancer, IL-17B, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), stemness Received: November 21, 2016 Accepted: January 17, 2017 Published: January 27, 2017 ABSTRACT Mesenchymal stem cells are important cells in tumor microenvironment. We have previously demonstrated that IL-17B/IL-17RB signal promoted progression of gastric cancer. In this study, we further explored the effect of IL-17B on mesenchymal stem cells in tumor microenvironment and its impact on the tumor progression. The results showed that IL-17B induced the expression of stemness-related genes Nanog, Sox2, and Oct4 in mesenchymal stem cells and enhanced its tumor-promoting effect. The supernatant from cultured mesenchymal stem cells after treating with exogenous rIL-17B promoted the proliferation and migration of MGC-803, therefor suggesting that rIL-17B might promote mesenchymal stem cells to produce soluble factors. In addition, rIL-17B also activated the NF-κΒ, STAT3, β-catenin pathway in mesenchymal stem cells. Our data revealed a new mechanism that IL-17B enhanced the progression of gastric cancer by activating mesenchymal stem cells.