"Inverse signaling" of the transmembrane chemokine CXCL16 contributes to proliferative and anti-apoptotic effects in cultured human meningioma cells

Background: Chemokines and their receptors play a decisive role in tumor progression and metastasis. We recently found a new signaling mechanism in malignant glioma cells mediated by transmembrane chemokines that we termed "inverse signaling". According to this hypothesis, soluble (s)-CXCL16 binds to the surface-expressed transmembrane (tm) -CXCL16, and induces signaling and different biological effects in the stimulated cells, so that the transmembrane ligand itself acts as a receptor for its soluble counterpart. Now, we hypothesized that "inverse signaling" via tm-CXCL16 might also take place in meningiomas, a completely different, benign tumor entity.

Methods: We used quantitative reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction, immunocytochemistry and western blot to detect CXCL16 and CXCR6 in human meningioma cells isolated from 28 human meningiomas. Subsequently, we stimulated cultured human tm-CXCL16-positive, CXCR6-negative meningioma cells with recombinant s-CXCL16 and analyzed binding, signaling and biological effects using RNAi silencing to verify specificity.

Results: In fact, cultured human meningioma cells considerably express CXCL16, but substantially lack CXCR6, the only known CXCL16 receptor. These receptor-negative cells could bind s-CXCL16, and responded to s-CXCL16 application with activation of the intracellular kinases ERK1/2 und Akt. As a consequence, we observed increased proliferation and rescue of apoptosis of cultured meningioma cells. Since binding and signaling were abolished by siRNA silencing, we concluded that tm-CXCL16 specifically acts as a receptor for s-CXCL16 also in human meningioma cells.

Conclusion: These findings underline our recent report on the mechanism of inverse signaling as a broad biological process also observable in more benign tumor cells and contributing to tumor progression.