Aquaporin 5 expression increases mucin production in lung adenocarcinoma.

Our recent studies have demonstrated that AQP5 is involved in the metastatic potential of lung cancer. Here, our aim was to explore the effects of AQP5 expression on mucin production in lung adenocarcinoma. We tested MUC5AC and MUC5B mucin production induced by AQP5 expression in lung adenocarcinoma metastasis. Lung adenocarcinoma cells with different levels of AQP5 expression were used in this study. In another set of experiments, deletion of AQP5 was studied using AQP5 (-/-) mice. Significantly increased expression of MUC5AC and MUC5B mucin was found in AQP5 high-expressing tumor cells, which suggested that mucin production induced by AQP5 may contribute to the enhanced metastatic potential in lung adenocarcinoma cells. Our results also showed that AQP5 expression increases MUC5AC and MUC5B mucin production and that this may be partly through the EGFR signaling pathway. In brief, our results provide evidence that mucin production induced by AQP5 expression may play important roles in enhanced metastasis potential in lung adenocarcinoma.