Growth regulation via insulin-like growth factor binding protein-4 and -2 in association with mutant K-ras in lung epithelia.

Gain-of-function point mutations in K-ras affect early events in pulmonary bronchioloalveolar carcinoma. We investigated altered mRNA expression on K-Ras activation in human peripheral lung epithelial cells (HPL1A) using oligonucleotide microarrays. Mutated K-Ras stably expressed in HPL1A accelerated cell growth and induced the expression of insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-binding protein (IGFBP)-4 and IGFBP-2, which modulate cell growth via IGF. Other lung epithelial cell lines (NHBE and HPL1D) revealed the same phenomena as HPL1A by mutated K-ras transgene. Lung cancer cell growth was also accelerated by mutated K-ras gene transduction, whereas IGFBP-4/2 induction was weaker compared with mutated K-Ras-expressing lung epithelial cells. To understand the differences in IGFBP-4/2 inducibility via K-Ras-activated signaling between nonneoplastic lung epithelia and lung carcinoma, we addressed the mechanisms of IGFBP-4/2 transcriptional activation. Our results revealed that Egr-1, which is induced on activation of Ras-mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling, is crucial for transactivation of IGFBP-4/2. Furthermore, IGFBP-4 and IGFBP-2 promoters were often hypermethylated in lung carcinoma, yielding low basal expression/weak induction of IGFBP-4/2. These findings suggest that continuous K-Ras activation accelerates cell growth and evokes a feedback system through IGFBP-4/2 to prevent excessive growth. Moreover, this growth regulation is disrupted in lung cancers because of promoter hypermethylation of IGFBP-4/2 genes.