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Updated: Sep 6, 2025

The Establishment of a Lung Colonization Assay for Circulating Tumor Cell Visualization in Lung Tissues
Published on: June 16, 2018
Asparagine synthetase regulates lung-cancer metastasis by stabilizing the β-catenin complex and modulating
Dong-Jing Cai1,2, Zi-Yu Zhang1,2, Yue Bu3
1Department of Respiratory Medicine, National Key Clinical Specialty, Branch of National Clinical Research Center for Respiratory Disease, Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, China.
Abstract:
The availability of asparagine is the limitation of cell growth and metastasis. Asparagine synthetase (ASNS) was an essential enzyme for endogenous asparagine products. In our study, ASNS-induced asparagine products were essential to maintain tumor growth and colony formations in vitro. But mutated ASNS which defected endogenous asparagine products still upregulated cell invasiveness, which indicated that ASNS promoted invasiveness by alternative pathways. Mechanically, ASNS modulated Wnt signal transduction by promoting GSK3β phosphorylation on ser9 and stabilizing the β-catenin complex, as result, ASNS could promote more β-catenin translocation into nucleus independent of endogenous asparagine. At the same time, ASNS modulated mitochondrial response to Wnt stimuli with increased mitochondrial potential and membrane fusion. In summary, ASNS promoted metastasis depending on Wnt pathway and mitochondrial functions even without endogenous asparagine products.
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