title: Investigate the role of PTEN in chemotaxis of human breast cancer cells.
abstract: Chemotaxis plays an important role in metastasis of cancer cells. In the current study, we investigated the role of PTEN, a tumor suppressor, in chemotaxis of human breast cancer cells. Over-expression of PTEN inhibited EGF-induced chemotaxis, probably due to an overall reduction of PIP(3) levels. Disruption of PTEN by siRNA caused a marked decrease in chemokinesis, cell adhesion, and membrane spreading, resulting in a severe defect in chemotaxis. In PTEN disrupted cells, PDK1, AKT, and PKCzeta exhibited elevated basal activities, which prevented EGF-induced further activation of these molecules. In the absence of EGF, active PDK1 was detected on multiple directions of the plasma membranes of PTEN disrupted cells, which competed against EGF-induced gradient sensing. To confirm the biological relevance of in vitro studies, both PTEN disrupted cells and its parental human breast cancer cells were injected into tail veins of SCID mice. Mice injected with PTEN disrupted cancer cells showed a marked decrease in lung metastasis. Taken together, our data show that PTEN plays a non-redundant role in EGF-induced chemotaxis of human breast cancer cells, and an optimal level of PTEN is required in these responses.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Department of Chemical Biology, and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Dynamic and Stable Structures, College of Chemistry, Peking University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wuzhou
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Haixia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.forename: Ronghua
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jingna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Dalong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology*; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000187:drug effects; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000187:drug effects; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000187:drug effects; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000494:pharmacology; D015870:Gene Expression / Q000187:drug effects; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000556:secondary; D051379:Mice; D016513:Mice, SCID; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase / Q000378:metabolism*; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D034741:RNA, Small Interfering; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor; D051059:PTEN Phosphohydrolase