ATF3 Suppresses Metastasis of Bladder Cancer by Regulating Gelsolin-Mediated Remodeling of the Actin Cytoskeleton

• Published in: Cancer research (Chicago, Ill.) Vol. 73; no. 12; pp. 3625 - 3637
• Main Authors: XIANGLIANG YUAN, LIANG YU, WILLIAMS, Elizabeth D, LIU, Jun-Ping, SADLER, Anthony J, WILLIAMS, Bryan R. G, LISONG SHEN, DAKANG XU, JUNHUA LI, GUOHUA XIE, TINGTING RONG, LIANG ZHANG, JIANHUA CHEN, QIAOHONG MENG, IRVING, Aaron T, DIE WANG
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA American Association for Cancer Research 15.06.2013
• Subjects: Actin Cytoskeleton - metabolism; Activating Transcription Factor 3 - genetics; Activating Transcription Factor 3 - metabolism; Animals; Antineoplastic agents; Biological and medical sciences; Blotting, Western; Cell Line, Tumor; Cell Movement - genetics; Cells, Cultured; Female; Gelsolin - genetics; Gelsolin - metabolism; Humans; Immunohistochemistry; Kaplan-Meier Estimate; Lung Neoplasms - genetics; Lung Neoplasms - metabolism; Lung Neoplasms - secondary; Male; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Knockout; Mice, SCID; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Middle Aged; Multiple tumors. Solid tumors. Tumors in childhood (general aspects); Nephrology. Urinary tract diseases; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Response Elements - genetics; Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; RNA Interference; Transplantation, Heterologous; Tumors; Tumors of the urinary system; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms - genetics; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms - metabolism; Urinary Bladder Neoplasms - pathology; Urinary system involvement in other diseases. Miscellaneous; Urinary tract. Prostate gland; Urinary system disease; Activating transcription factor 3; Contractile protein; Urinary tract disease; Malignant tumor; Metastasis; Remodeling; Bladder cancer; Actin; Cytoskeleton; Bladder disease; Gelsolin; Cancer
• ISSN: 0008-5472; 1538-7445
• DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.can-12-3879

Bladder cancer is associated with high recurrence and mortality rates due to metastasis. The elucidation of metastasis suppressors may offer therapeutic opportunities if their mechanisms of action can be elucidated and tractably exploited. In this study, we investigated the clinical and functional significance of the transcription factor activating transcription factor 3 (ATF3) in bladder cancer metastasis. Gene expression analysis revealed that decreased ATF3 was associated with bladder cancer progression and reduced survival of patients with bladder cancer. Correspondingly, ATF3 overexpression in highly metastatic bladder cancer cells decreased migration in vitro and experimental metastasis in vivo. Conversely, ATF3 silencing increased the migration of bladder cancer cells with limited metastatic capability in the absence of any effect on proliferation. In keeping with their increased motility, metastatic bladder cancer cells had increased numbers of actin filaments. Moreover, ATF3 expression correlated with expression of the actin filament severing protein gelsolin (GSN). Mechanistic studies revealed that ATF3 upregulated GSN, whereas ATF3 silencing reduced GSN levels, concomitant with alterations in the actin cytoskeleton. We identified six ATF3 regulatory elements in the first intron of the GSN gene confirmed by chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis. Critically, GSN expression reversed the metastatic capacity of bladder cancer cells with diminished levels of ATF3. Taken together, our results indicate that ATF3 suppresses metastasis of bladder cancer cells, at least in part through the upregulation of GSN-mediated actin remodeling. These findings suggest ATF3 coupled with GSN as prognostic markers for bladder cancer metastasis.