Chondroitin Sulfate Proteoglycan CSPG4 as a Novel Hypoxia-Sensitive Marker in Pancreatic Tumors

CSPG4 marks pericytes, undifferentiated precursors and tumor cells. We assessed whether the shed ectodomain of CSPG4 (s CSPG4 ) might circulate and reflect potential changes in CSPG4 tissue expression (p CSPG4 ) due to desmoplastic and malignant aberrations occurring in pancreatic tumors. Serum s CSPG4 was measured using ELISA in test (n = 83) and validation (n = 221) cohorts comprising donors (n = 11+26) and patients with chronic pancreatitis (n = 11+20) or neoplasms: benign (serous cystadenoma SCA, n = 13+20), premalignant (intraductal dysplastic IPMNs, n = 9+55), and malignant (IPMN-associated invasive carcinomas, n = 4+14; ductal adenocarcinomas, n = 35+86). Pancreatic p CSPG4 expression was evaluated using qRT-PCR (n = 139), western blot analysis and immunohistochemistry. s CSPG4 was found in circulation, but its level was significantly lower in pancreatic patients than in donors. Selective maintenance was observed in advanced IPMNs and PDACs and showed a nodal association while lacking prognostic relevance. Pancreatic p CSPG4 expression was preserved or elevated, whereby neoplastic cells lacked p CSPG4 or tended to overexpress without shedding. Extreme pancreatic overexpression, membranous exposure and tissue high /sera low -discordance highlighted stroma-poor benign cystic neoplasm. SCA is known to display hypoxic markers and coincide with von-Hippel-Lindau and Peutz-Jeghers syndromes, in which p VHL and LBK1 mutations affect hypoxic signaling pathways. In vitro testing confined p CSPG4 overexpression to normal mesenchymal but not epithelial cells, and a third of tested carcinoma cell lines; however, only the latter showed p CSPG4 -responsiveness to chronic hypoxia. siRNA-based knockdowns failed to reduce the malignant potential of either normoxic or hypoxic cells. Thus, overexpression of the newly established conditional hypoxic indicator, CSPG4 , is apparently non-pathogenic in pancreatic malignancies but might mark distinct epithelial lineage and contribute to cell polarity disorders. Surficial retention on tumor cells renders CSPG4 an attractive therapeutic target. Systemic ‘drop and restoration’ alterations accompanying IPMN and PDAC progression indicate that the interference of pancreatic diseases with local and remote shedding/release of sCSPG4 into circulation deserves broad diagnostic exploration.