Granulin Expression in Hamsters during Opisthorchis viverrini Infection-Induced Cholangiocarcinogenesis

The secreted growth factor granulin (GRN) is upregulated during diverse epithelial cancers. GRN stimulates cell growth and development while inhibiting apoptosis. Orthologues of vertebrate granulins evolved in other animals including the liver fluke Opisthorchis viverrini. Curiously, liver fluke granulin, termed Ov-GRN-1 promotes cholangiocarcinogenesis during chronic opisthorchiasis but, by contrast, limited information is available concerning mammalian GRN during liver fluke infection-induced cholangiocarcinoma (CCA). Here we investigated the expression of mammalian granulin in the O. viverrini-associated a hamster model of opisthorchiasis and liver fluke infection-induced CCA. Male Syrian golden hamsters were assigned to one of four treatment groups, each group included 30 hamsters: 1) normal (control), 2) infected with O. viverrini (OV); 3) exposed to N-dimethylnitrosamine in drinking water (DMN); and 4) infected with O. viverrini and exposed to DMN (OVDMN). Immunohistochemistry using an anti-granulin specific probe for mammalian granulin was undertaken to monitor expression and location in hepatobiliary tissues of the hamsters. In parallel, cognate studies of transcription of mRNA and protein. Histopathological examination revealed development of proliferative lesions from the onset and eruption of CCA onwards, an outcome that was most prominent in the OVDMN hamsters. Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) index rose continuously from initiation of infection and increased with lesion progression in OV, DMN and markedly in OVDMN hamsters. Expression of GRN in biliary was elevated in biliary epithelial cells in CCA lesions in hamsters in the DMN and OVDMN groups. Expression of GRN as assayed by western blot and RT-PCR reflected the same trend as seen with PCNA. Together the histopathogical and molecular assay based findings revealed marked expression of granulin during cholangiocarcinoma in these hamsters, and highlighted the prospect that granulin represents a potential prognostic marker for cholangiocarcinoma.