Tumor malignancy as the possible acquisition of markers of trophoblastic ontogeny: preliminary in vitro and in ovo study

Trophoblastic and tumor cells share behaviors such as invasiveness, angiogenesis, immune scape, chemoresistance and survival to hostile environments, suggesting that some types of cancer could be a transformation to a trophoblastic phenotype. This hypothesis exposes that the expression of some trophoblastic markers can be correlated with tumor malignancy. The expression of trophoblastic markers (TBX3, TBX2, ERVW1, HLAG and Trop2) and tumor aggressiveness (MMP9, MMP2, VEGF and TGF-β) was evaluated by RT-pPCR in different tumor cell lines. Biotinidase activity was also studied. In addition, tumors were induced in chicken chorioallantoic membrane to analyze morphology, tumor area and clonogenicity. Overexpression of two or more trophoblastic markers was identified in SF268, MG63, A549, HT29, HCT15 and Skbr3. The results correlated with aggressiveness and invasiveness in the in ovo assay. In addition, these tumor cell lines showed higher biotinidase activity so they can survive the lack of biotin cofactor. The overexpression of trophoblastic markers was correlated with the presence of a malignant phenotype characterized by aggressiveness, invasiveness, clonogenicity and resistance to the lack of cofactors such as biotin. These markers could be used in the early diagnosis and prognosis of some types of cancer and in the development of new therapeutic strategies.