Our study demonstrates that laminin potentiates cisplatin-induced apoptosis in NCCIT, a testicular tumor germ cell line. When cultured on laminin, NCCIT cells displayed a significantly higher susceptibility to cisplatin-induced apoptosis than on plastic or on other ECM components including fibronectin, Type IV collagen and vitronectin. This high cisplatin sensitivity observed on NCCIT cell cultured on laminin was mediated by the alpha6-integrin signaling. The knockdown of the alpha6-integrin subunit by small interfering RNAs suppressed the higher cisplatin-sensitivity supporting the existence of a crosstalk between laminin-alpha6-integrin signaling and cisplatin-induced apoptosis. Our findings indicate that in cisplatin-treated NCCIT cells, the laminin-alpha6-integrin signaling induces the activation of executioner procaspase-3 and -6 as well as apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) transcription and expression. The ability of integrin-mediated specific stroma-tumor cell interactions to modulate the chemosensitive phenotype of a tumor cell might provide new insights to overcome cisplatin resistance of tumor cells.
Copyright (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.