Tan Cong-Cong, Li Gui-Xi, Tan Li-Duan, Du Xin, Li Xiao-Qing, He Rui, Wang Qing-Shan, Feng Yu-Mei
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Tianjin 300060, China.
Key Laboratory of Breast Cancer Prevention and Treatment of the Ministry of Education, Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital, National Clinical Research Center of Cancer, Tianjin 300060, China.
Oncotarget. 2016 Nov 29;7(48):79688-79705. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.12939.
Bone is one of the most common organs of breast cancer metastasis. Cancer cells that mimic osteoblasts by expressing bone matrix proteins and factors have a higher likelihood of metastasizing to bone. However, the molecular mechanisms of osteomimicry formation of cancer cells remain undefined. Herein, we identified a set of bone-related genes (BRGs) that are ectopically co-expressed in primary breast cancer tissues and determined that osteomimetic feature is obtained due to the osteoblast-like transformation of epithelial breast cancer cells that have undergone epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) followed by bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP2) stimulation. Furthermore, we demonstrated that breast cancer cells that transformed into osteoblast-like cells with high expression of BRGs showed enhanced chemotaxis, adhesion, proliferation and multidrug resistance in an osteoblast-mimic bone microenvironment in vitro. During these processes, runt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) functioned as a master mediator by suppressing or activating the transcription of BRGs that underlie the dynamic antagonism between the TGF-β/SMAD and BMP/SMAD signaling pathways in breast cancer cells. Our findings suggest a novel mechanism of osteomimicry formation that arises in primary breast tumors, which may explain the propensity of breast cancer to metastasize to the skeleton and contribute to potential strategies for predicting and targeting breast cancer bone metastasis and multidrug resistance.
骨骼是乳腺癌转移最常见的器官之一。通过表达骨基质蛋白和因子来模拟成骨细胞的癌细胞更有可能转移至骨骼。然而,癌细胞形成骨模拟的分子机制仍不清楚。在此,我们鉴定出一组在原发性乳腺癌组织中异位共表达的骨相关基因(BRGs),并确定骨模拟特征是由于经历上皮-间质转化(EMT)的乳腺上皮癌细胞在骨形态发生蛋白-2(BMP2)刺激后向成骨细胞样转化而获得的。此外,我们证明,在体外模拟成骨细胞的骨微环境中,转化为高表达BRGs的成骨细胞样细胞的乳腺癌细胞表现出增强的趋化性、粘附性、增殖能力和多药耐药性。在这些过程中, runt相关转录因子2(RUNX2)通过抑制或激活BRGs的转录发挥主要调节作用,而BRGs是乳腺癌细胞中TGF-β/SMAD和BMP/SMAD信号通路之间动态拮抗作用的基础。我们的研究结果提示了原发性乳腺肿瘤中出现的骨模拟形成的新机制,这可能解释了乳腺癌转移至骨骼的倾向,并有助于预测和靶向乳腺癌骨转移及多药耐药性的潜在策略。