title: The mature bone morphogenetic protein-2 is aberrantly expressed in non-small cell lung carcinomas and stimulates tumor growth of A549 cells.
abstract: To help identify genes, which may regulate metastasis in lung cancer, we performed representational difference analysis between a patient-derived non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) and immortalized normal human bronchial epithelial cells. This analysis revealed that bone morphogenetic proteins-2/4 (BMP) mRNA was expressed in the lung carcinoma. BMP-2/4 are known to induce pluripotent cell differentiation, enhance cell migration and stimulate proliferation during embryonic development. Despite being powerful morphogens it is not known whether BMP-2/4 have significant biological activity in human carcinomas. Furthermore, it has not been established whether the mature active BMP-2/4 protein is aberrantly expressed in patient-derived tumors. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the expression of the mature BMP-2/4 protein is disregulated in human lung carcinomas and to establish whether it has adverse biological activity. This study reveals that the mature BMP-2 protein, but not BMP-4, is highly over-expressed in human NCSLC with little to no expression in normal lung tissue or benign lung tumors. The expression of BMP-2 localized specifically to the cancer cells. Recombinant BMP-2 stimulated in vitro, the migration and invasiveness of the A549 and H7249 human lung cancer cell lines. In vivo, recombinant BMP-2 enhanced the growth of tumors formed from A549 cells injected subcutaneously into nude mice. Furthermore, inhibition of BMP-2 activity with either recombinant noggin or anti-BMP-2 antibody resulted in a significant reduction in tumor growth. This study shows that expression of the mature BMP-2 protein is disregulated in the majority of NSCLC. BMP-2 enhancement of tumor cell migration and invasion, as well as stimulating tumor growth in vivo, suggests it has important biological activity in lung carcinomas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Division of Thoracic Surgery, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, One Robert Wood Johnson Place, PO Box 19, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0019, USA. langenje@umdnj.edu
authors.forename: Elaine M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Langenfeld
authors.forename: Steve E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Calvano
authors.forename: Fadi
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Abou-Nukta
authors.forename: Stephen F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Lowry
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Amenta
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Langenfeld
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2; D055415:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D002289:Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness / Q000473:pathology; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D011994:Recombinant Proteins / Q000494:pharmacology; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: C525718:BMP2 protein, human; C525809:BMP4 protein, human; C525719:Bmp2 protein, mouse; C525810:Bmp4 protein, mouse; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2; D055415:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 4; D019485:Bone Morphogenetic Proteins; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D016212:Transforming Growth Factor beta; C499469:recombinant human bone morphogenetic protein-2