Mutation of TGF-β receptor II facilitates human bladder cancer progression through altered TGF-β1 signaling pathway.

Tumor cells commonly adapt survival strategies by downregulation or mutational inactivation of TGF-β receptors thereby reversing TGF-β1-mediated growth arrest. However, TGF-β1-triggered signaling also has a protumor effect through promotion of tumor cell migration. The mechanism(s) through which malignant cells reconcile this conflict by avoiding growth arrest, but strengthening migration remains largely unclear. TGF-βRII was overexpressed in the bladder cancer cell line T24, concomitant with point mutations, especially the Glu269 to Lys mutation (G → A). Whilst leaving Smad2/3 binding unaffected, TGF-βRII mutations resulted in the unaffected tumor cell growth and also enhanced cell mobility by TGF-β1 engagement. Such phenomena are perhaps partially explained by the mutated TGF-βRII pathway deregulating the p15 and Cdc25A genes that are important to cell proliferation and CUTL1 gene relevant to motility. On the other hand, transfecting recombinant TGF-βRII-Fc vectors or smad2/3 siRNA blocked such abnormal gene expressions. Clinically, such G → A mutations were also found in 18 patients (n=46) with bladder cancer. Comparing the clinical and pathologic characteristics, the pathologic T category (χ2 trend = 7.404, P<0.01) and tumor grade (χ2 trend = 9.127, P<0.01) tended to increase in the G → A mutated group (TGF-βRII point-mutated group). These findings provide new insights into how TGF-β1 signaling is tailored during tumorigenesis and new information into the current TGF-β1-based therapeutic strategies, especially in bladder cancer patient treatment.