Investigation of changes in COL10A1 and SOX9 gene expressions in adaptive extracellular pH changes in lung cancer

The incidence and mortality of lung cancer ranks first among all cancers. When the disease is localised, the five-year survival rate is 56%, whereas this rate is only 5% in the presence of metastasis. Metastasis is an important pathophysiological event in terms of cancer prognosis. For this reason, the analysis of the factors causing metastasis is extremely important for the specific disease. Studies have shown that epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT) contributes to metastasis and remodelling of extracellular matrix (ECM) has important effects. In this pathophysiological situation, it is known that the expression of different collagen families, which are important components of the extracellular matrix, is evaluated as a biomarker in many cancer types. Recent studies have revealed that there is a region on the promoter of COL10A1 gene where SOX9 binds and this binding causes an increase in COL10A1 expression and plays a role in epithelial mesenchymal transition. In the present study, the expression changes of COL10A1, a member of the collagen family, which is also an important component of the ECM and is expressed to cause epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is one of the important changes for lung metastasis, and SOX9 genes, which are both known to be involved in EMT and up-regulator of COL10A1, were examined in acidic tumour environment. For this purpose, certain pH levels were created in the A549 lung adenocarcinoma cell line and cancer cells were adapted to the pH levels created. SOX9, COL10A1 gene expression levels at different adaptive pH levels were analyzed using simultaneous polymerase chain reaction. EMT was investigated by expression of CDH1 gene, an epithelial marker, and VIM gene, a mesenchymal marker. Cell proliferation and cell migration were also analyzed under different adaptive pH conditions. As a result, compared to healthy lung cells, the expression of the investigated genes COL10A1 and SOX9 and the CDH1 and VIM genes used for the analysis of EMT transition at adaptive pH 7.0 levels is remarkable.