Wan Hua

Dr. Wan Hua


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

6Years (2021-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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15 September 2021 in Metabolites
Verified
Journal Article
Open access
PDF file
WHWan Hua
Wan Hua
SKSarantos Kostidis
Sarantos Kostidis
OMOleg A. Mayboroda
Oleg A. Mayboroda
Martin GieraMartin Giera
Martin Giera
MHMarten Hornsveld
Marten Hornsveld
PDPeter Ten Dijke
Peter Ten Dijke
The cytokine transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) can induce normal breast epithelial cells to take on a mesenchymal phenotype, termed epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT). While the transcriptional and proteomic changes during TGF-β-induced EMT have been described, the metabolic rewiring that occurs in epithelial cells undergoing EMT is not well understood. Here, we quantitively analyzed the TGF-β-induced metabolic reprogramming during EMT of non-transformed NMuMG mouse mammary gland epithelial cells using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. We found that TGF-β elevates glycolytic and tricarboxylic acid (TCA)-cycle activity and increases glutaminolysis. Additionally, TGF-β affects the hexosamine pathway, arginine-proline metabolism, the cellular redox state, and strongly affects choline metabolism during EMT. TGF-β was found to induce phosphocholine production. A kinase inhibitor RSM-93A that inhibits choline kinase α (CHKα) mitigated TGF-β-induced changes associated with EMT, i.e., increased filamentous (F)-actin stress fiber formation and N-Cadherin mesenchymal marker expression.