Starvation‐induced autophagy promotes the invasion and migration of human bladder cancer cells via TGF‐β1/Smad3‐mediated epithelial‐mesenchymal transition activation. Issue 4 (15th October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tong, Hang; Yin, Hubin; Hossain, Mohammad Arman; Wang, Yiyang; Wu, Feixiang; Dong, Xiaoyong; Gao, Shun; Zhan, Kai; He, Weiyang
• Is Part Of: Journal of cellular biochemistry. Volume 120:Issue 4(2019)
• Page Start: 5118
• Page End: 5127
• Publication Date: 2018-10-15
• Subjects: autophagy -- bladder cancer -- epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT) -- invasion -- migration -- transforming growth factor 1 (TGF‐β)/Smad; Cytochemistry -- Periodicals; 572
• DOI: 10.1002/jcb.27788
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0730-2312

Abstract

Abstract: The biological characteristics of bladder cancer include enhanced invasion and migration, which are the main causes of death in patients. Starvation is a typical feature of the bladder cancer microenvironment and can induce autophagy. Autophagy has an important relationship with the invasion and migration of tumors. However, the role of autophagy in the invasion and migration of bladder cancer cells remains unclear. Hence, the aim of the current study was to clarify this role and underlying mechanism. In this study, we found that starvation enhanced the epithelial‐mesenchymal transition (EMT)‐mediated invasion and migration of T24 and 5637 cells while inducing autophagy. The inhibition of autophagy with chloroquine (CQ) or 3‐methyladenine (3MA) decreased EMT‐mediated invasion and migration. In addition, the expression of transforming growth factor 1 (TGF‐β1) and phosphorylated Smad3 (p‐Smad3) increased after starvation. The inhibition of autophagy with CQ or 3MA also decreased the expression of TGF‐β1 and p‐Smad3. The inhibitor of TGF‐β receptor sb431542 also inhibited the invasion, migration, and EMT of T24 and 5637 cells during starvation. Furthermore, recombinant TGF‐β1 induced autophagy and inhibition of the TGF‐β/Smad signaling pathway with sb431542 suppressed autophagy. In summary, our results suggested that autophagy promotes the invasion and migration of bladder cancer cells by inducing EMT through the TGF‐β1/Smad3 signaling pathway. Moreover, autophagy and TGF‐β1 can form a positive feedback loop to synergistically promote invasion and migration. Thus, our findings may provide a theoretical basis for the prevention of invasion and migration in bladder cancer. Abstract : A new mode of regulation of bladder cancer invasion and migration is proposed. Starvation‐induced autophagy of bladder cancer cells promotes the epithelial‐mesenchymal transition by the transforming growth factor 1 (TGF‐β1)/Smad3 signaling pathway. Autophagy and TGF‐β1 form a positive feedback loop to promote synergistically the invasion and migration.