Retinoic acid receptor alpha2 is a growth suppressor epigenetically silenced in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells.
Retinoic acid (RA) receptor (RAR) beta2 has been shown to be underexpressed in human breast cancer cells, including MCF-7 cells, and recent reports have suggested that hypermethylation of the RAR beta2 promoter and 5'-UTR is the underlying cause. Here we show that RAR alpha2 is also underexpressed in MCF-7 breast cancer cells, at both the message and the protein level, relative to normal or nontumorigenic breast epithelial cells. Bisulfite sequencing of the CpG island in the RAR alpha2 promoter revealed highly penetrant and uniform cytosine methylation in MCF-7 cells. Pretreatment with the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor, azacytidine, followed by treatment with RA and a histone deacetylase inhibitor, trichostatin A, resulted in partial promoter demethylation and RAR alpha2 induction, which strongly suggested that promoter hypermethylation is responsible for RAR alpha2 underexpression. We compared the outcome of ectopic expression in MCF-7 cells of matched levels of RAR alpha2 and RAR beta2. On the basis of a clonogenic assay, RAR alpha2 displayed ligand-dependent growth-suppressive activity similar to that of RARb eta2; thus, 10 and 20 nM RA inhibited clonogenic growth by 52 and 80%, respectively, in RAR alpha2-transfected cells compared with 75 and 77%, respectively, in RAR beta2-transfected cells. We conclude that the silencing of the RAR alpha2 promoter by hypermethylation may play a contributory role in the dysregulation of RA signaling in mammary tumorigenesis.
Departments of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York 10029-6574, USA.
Eduardo F
EF
Farias
Alice
A
Arapshian
Ira J
IJ
Bleiweiss
Samuel
S
Waxman
Arthur
A
Zelent
Rafael
R
Mira-Y-Lopez
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000187:drug effects; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics*; D020868:Gene Silencing / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D016147:Genes, Tumor Suppressor / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics; D018168:Receptors, Retinoic Acid / Q000187:drug effects / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D000072482:Retinoic Acid Receptor alpha; D014212:Tretinoin / Q000494:pharmacology; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; C000607071:RARA protein, human; D018168:Receptors, Retinoic Acid; D000072482:Retinoic Acid Receptor alpha; C082925:retinoic acid receptor beta; D014212:Tretinoin