Starvation after cobalt-60γ-ray radiation enhances metastasis in U251 glioma cells by regulating the transcription factor SP1

Radiation is of clinical importance during glioma therapy; however, vasculature damage is observed over the treatment course. This type of tissue damage might lead to starvation conditions, affecting tumor metastasis. To test this possibility, we compared starvation conditions in conjunction with radiation treatment to monitor metastatic ability in the U251 glioma cell line. Transcriptome, western blot, and immunofluorescence analyses were used to measure the RNA and protein expression changes of the U251 cells after various treatments. We found that starvation combined with radiation treatment yielded the most significant expression changes in metastasis-related factors compared to that in the control groups. In addition, a metastasis assay was used to directly measure the metastatic ability of the treated cells, which confirmed that the U251 cells treated with starvation combined with radiation possessed the highest metastatic ability. Furthermore, bioinformatics analysis demonstrated that SP1 represented a common transcription factor associated with changes in metastasis-related factors. Blocking SP1 activity by an inhibitor suppressed the starvation-plus-radiation treatment-mediated enhancement of U251 cell metastasis. Our study provides the first evidence that starvation caused by radiation might play a significant role in enhancing the ability of the glioma cell line U251 to metastasize via regulation of the transcription factor SP1.