Prostaglandin E2 modifies SMAD2 and promotes SMAD2-SMAD4 complex formation.

We report that PGE2 promotes Smad2-Smad4 complex formation and this phenomenon could be blocked by DIDS, an anion transporter inhibitor. Our data suggest that PGE2 had no effects on Smad2 phosphorylation, suggesting that PGE2-mediated Smad2-Smad4 complex formation is independent of TGF-β signaling and that PGE2 induced Smad2 modification which is different from TGF-β-mediated phosphorylation. We demonstrate that in primary human glomerular mesangial cells PGE2 caused modification of Smad2 as detected by Smad2N antibody, raised against a peptide near the N-terminus of Smad2. We hypothesize that Smad2 protein is post-translationaly modified by PGE2. Direct evidence of Smad2 modification by PGE2 was achieved by avidin pulldown assay which showed that endogenous Smad2 and recombinant Smad2 protein were attached by biotin-labeled PGE2. Taken together, our results provided evidence that post-translational modification of Smad2 could be a mechanism for the action of PGE2 in the pathogenesis of human pathologies.