KiSS‑1‑mediated suppression of the invasive ability of human pancreatic carcinoma cells is not dependent on the level of KiSS‑1 receptor GPR54.

The onset of local invasion and lymphatic metastasis in pancreatic cancer limits survival following surgical intervention and additional therapies. Reduced expression of KiSS-1 in pancreatic cancer is associated with cancer metastasis. Previous studies have indicated that kisspeptin, the KiSS-1 peptide, is able to bind to its receptor-GPR54 (hOT7T175) and suppress the migration of PANC-1 pancreatic cancer cells. Whether the metastatic suppression of KiSS-1 is dependent on the levels of GPR54 in pancreatic cancer cell lines remains unclear. Human BxPC-3 pancreatic carcinoma cells are highly differentiated without exhibiting metastasis, however PANC-1 pancreatic carcinoma cells are poorly differentiated and exhibit local and lymph node metastasis. Compared with primary cultured trophoblasts, BxPc-3 and PANC-1 cells were observed to express low levels of KiSS-1 mRNA and protein, measured using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction and western blotting, respectively. However, greater mRNA and protein expression levels of GPR54 were observed in PANC-1 cells compared with BxPc-3 cells. An MTT assay was used to investigate the effect of KiSS-1 on BxPc-3 and PANC-1 cell proliferation. There were no significant differences in proliferation following transfection with KiSS-1 in BxPc-3 and PANC-1 cells compared with the controls (P>0.05). A Transwell assay with chambers coated with Matrigel was used to evaluate the in vitro invasive ability of BxPc-3 and PANC-1 cells, with the invasion index of BxPc-3 and PANC-1 cells significantly reduced following 48 h of KiSS-1 overexpression (P<0.05). The mRNA and protein expression levels of KiSS-1 were significantly increased in BxPc-3 and PANC-1 cells 48 h subsequent to transfection with KiSS-1 (P<0.05), while GPR54 expression was not altered (P>0.05). KiSS-1 is a metastasis suppressor gene of pancreatic cancer, and this suppression is not dependent on the expression levels of GPR54. Therefore, KiSS-1 is potentially a novel target for gene therapy.