Autophagy may promote carcinoma cell invasion and correlate with poor prognosis in cholangiocarcinoma.

The role of autophagy in cholangiocarcinoma is poorly understood. This study investigated its involvement in cholangiocarcinoma, focusing on carcinoma cell invasion and prognostic significance using cholangiocarcinoma cell lines, CCKS1 and HuCCT1, and human tissues of hilar and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Nutrient starvation induced the expression of LC3-II and the formation of LC3 puncta in both CCKS1 and HuCCT1, suggesting the occurrence of autophagy. The induction of autophagy was accompanied by the increased expression of an autophagy-related protein, Ambra1, in the cells. Under starvation conditions, the invasive activity of both cells was significantly increased, and a lysosomal inhibitor, chloroquine, attenuated this increased invasive activity. Transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), known as an inducer of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), increased the invasive activity of both cells, and chloroquine also significantly reduced TGF-β1-induced cell invasion. Immunohistochemical staining using cholangiocarcinoma tissues showed that the expression of Ambra1 positively correlated with the expression of Snail, one of the major transcriptional factors of EMT. In addition, overexpression of Ambra1 significantly correlated with lymph node metastasis and poor survival rate of the patients. These results suggest that the occurrence of autophagy may be associated with a malignant phenotype and poor prognosis in cholangiocarcinoma, and autophagy is possibly involved in EMT-related cholangiocarcinoma cell invasion.