Low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase isoforms regulate breast cancer cells migration through a RhoA dependent mechanism

PLoS One. 2013 Sep 27;8(9):e76307. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0076307. eCollection 2013.

Abstract

Low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase (LMW-PTP) has been associated with cell proliferation control through dephosphorylation and inactivation of growth factor receptors such as PDGF-R and EphA2, and with cellular adhesion and migration through p190RhoGap and RhoA. We aim to clarify the role of two main LMW-PTP isoforms in breast cancer tumorigenesis. We used a siRNA-mediated loss-of-function in MDA-MB-435 breast cancer cell line to study the role of the two main LMW-PTP isoforms, fast and slow, in breast cancer tumorigenesis and migration. Our results show that the siRNAs directed against total LMW-PTP and LMW-PTP slow isoform enhanced cell motility in an invasive breast cancer cell line, MDA-MB-435, with no changes in the proliferation and invasive potential of cells. The total LMW-PTP knockdown caused a more pronounced increase of cell migration. Suppression of total LMW-PTP decreased RhoA activation and suppression of the LMW-PTP slow isoform caused a small but significant increase in RhoA activation. We propose that the increase or decrease in RhoA activation induces changes in stress fibers formation and consequently alter the adhesive and migratory potential of cells. These findings suggest that the two main isoforms of LMW-PTP may act differentially, with the fast isoform having a more prominent role in tumor cell migration. In addition, our results highlight functional specificity among LMW-PTP isoforms, suggesting hitherto unknown roles for these proteins in breast cancer biology. Novel therapeutic approaches targeting LMW-PTP, considering the expression of these two isoforms and not LMW-PTP as a whole, should be investigated.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Breast Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Breast Neoplasms / physiopathology*
  • Carcinogenesis / metabolism*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Movement / physiology*
  • Female
  • Gene Knockdown Techniques
  • Humans
  • Protein Isoforms / metabolism
  • Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases / genetics
  • Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases / metabolism*
  • RNA, Small Interfering / genetics
  • Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • rhoA GTP-Binding Protein / metabolism*

Substances

  • Protein Isoforms
  • RNA, Small Interfering
  • RHOA protein, human
  • Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases
  • rhoA GTP-Binding Protein

Grants and funding

Irina Alho is supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, FCT grant: SFRH/BD/44716/2008. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.