TY - JOUR
T1 - HOXA13 in etiology and oncogenic potential of Barrett’s esophagus
AU - Janmaat, Vincent T.
AU - Nesteruk, Kateryna
AU - Spaander, Manon C.W.
AU - Verhaar, Auke P.
AU - Yu, Bingting
AU - Silva, Rodrigo A.
AU - Phillips, Wayne A.
AU - Magierowski, Marcin
AU - van de Winkel, Anouk
AU - Stadler, H. Scott
AU - Sandoval-Guzmán, Tatiana
AU - van der Laan, Luc J.W.
AU - Kuipers, Ernst J.
AU - Smits, Ron
AU - Bruno, Marco J.
AU - Fuhler, Gwenny M.
AU - Clemons, Nicholas J.
AU - Peppelenbosch, Maikel P.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12/1
Y1 - 2021/12/1
N2 - Barrett’s esophagus in gastrointestinal reflux patients constitutes a columnar epithelium with distal characteristics, prone to progress to esophageal adenocarcinoma. HOX genes are known mediators of position-dependent morphology. Here we show HOX collinearity in the adult gut while Barrett’s esophagus shows high HOXA13 expression in stem cells and their progeny. HOXA13 overexpression appears sufficient to explain both the phenotype (through downregulation of the epidermal differentiation complex) and the oncogenic potential of Barrett’s esophagus. Intriguingly, employing a mouse model that contains a reporter coupled to the HOXA13 promotor we identify single HOXA13-positive cells distally from the physiological esophagus, which is mirrored in human physiology, but increased in Barrett’s esophagus. Additionally, we observe that HOXA13 expression confers a competitive advantage to cells. We thus propose that Barrett’s esophagus and associated esophageal adenocarcinoma is the consequence of expansion of this gastro-esophageal HOXA13-expressing compartment following epithelial injury.
AB - Barrett’s esophagus in gastrointestinal reflux patients constitutes a columnar epithelium with distal characteristics, prone to progress to esophageal adenocarcinoma. HOX genes are known mediators of position-dependent morphology. Here we show HOX collinearity in the adult gut while Barrett’s esophagus shows high HOXA13 expression in stem cells and their progeny. HOXA13 overexpression appears sufficient to explain both the phenotype (through downregulation of the epidermal differentiation complex) and the oncogenic potential of Barrett’s esophagus. Intriguingly, employing a mouse model that contains a reporter coupled to the HOXA13 promotor we identify single HOXA13-positive cells distally from the physiological esophagus, which is mirrored in human physiology, but increased in Barrett’s esophagus. Additionally, we observe that HOXA13 expression confers a competitive advantage to cells. We thus propose that Barrett’s esophagus and associated esophageal adenocarcinoma is the consequence of expansion of this gastro-esophageal HOXA13-expressing compartment following epithelial injury.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-021-23641-8
DO - 10.1038/s41467-021-23641-8
M3 - Article
C2 - 34099670
AN - SCOPUS:85107557444
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 12
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 3354
ER -