Abstract 5323: Inflammation drives lineage plasticity and a club cell-like phenotype in prostate epithelial cells
Authors: Hess Megan , Song Hanbing , Hicks Jessica , Mummert Luke , De Marzo Angelo , Huang Franklin W. , Sfanos Karen 
Published: March 2024

Background: Club cells are a type of bronchiolar epithelial cell that serve a protective and antimicrobial function in the lung. An epithelial cell population in adult human prostates was recently identified as sharing a similar transcriptomic profile and morphology to lung club cells. Club-like epithelial cells were identified in the prostatic urethra, collecting ducts, and rarely in the peripheral zone of normal organ donor prostates. However, we recently reported that cells expressing club cell markers (CP, LTF, MMP7, PIGR, SCGB1A1) are present in the peripheral zone of radical prostatectomy specimens. Here, expression of club cell markers was restricted to luminal epithelial cells in an inflammation-associated lesion termed proliferative inflammatory atrophy (PIA). We also demonstrated that these club-like cells within PIA express the same markers as intermediate cells, a proposed prostate cancer progenitor cell. We now aim to identify exogenous factors that drive the club cell phenotype in vitro. Our ultimate goal is to understand how club cell gene expression affects the oncogenic and metastatic potential of prostate epithelial cells.

Methods: We characterized the expression of club cell genes in prostate cell lines (LNCaP, PREC, and PREC-AR-Myc) following exposure to inflammatory stimuli (TNFα, hydrogen peroxide, uropathogenic Escherichia coli) in vitro. We performed quantitative reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) to measure expression of club cell markers (LTF, MMP7, PIGR) and intermediate cell markers (AR, NKX3.1, SMOX). Additionally, we used chromogenic RNA in situ hybridization (RISH) to visualize LTF, MMP7, and PIGR expression following exposure to inflammatory stimuli.

Results: We report that TNFα exposure in vitro increased expression of club cell genes (LTF, MMP7, PIGR). Surprisingly, TNFα exposure induced LTF expression in LNCaP cells, despite prior findings that LTF is silenced by CpG island hypermethylation in prostate cancer and in LNCaP cells. This finding was confirmed by both RT-qPCR and RISH. Additionally, we found that TNFα exposure altered intermediate cell markers (AR, NKX3.1, SMOX) expression consistent with the previously reported gene expression pattern of luminal epithelial cells in PIA.

Conclusions: Overall, our results suggest that TNFα-mediated signaling drives the expression of club cell markers associated with lineage plasticity. Our next step will be to analyze inflammation-driven alterations to methylation and chromatin accessibility around loci associated with club cell genes, proton-oncogenes, and tumor suppressor genes.

Citation Format: Megan Hess, Hanbing Song, Jessica Hicks, Luke Mummert, Angelo De Marzo, Franklin W. Huang, Karen Sfanos. Inflammation drives lineage plasticity and a club cell-like phenotype in prostate epithelial cells [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2024; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2024 Apr 5-10; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2024;84(6_Suppl):Abstract nr 5323.