Breast Cancer Research (Oct 2018)

Metastatic breast cancer cells overexpress and secrete miR-218 to regulate type I collagen deposition by osteoblasts

  • Xuxiang Liu,
  • Minghui Cao,
  • Melanie Palomares,
  • Xiwei Wu,
  • Arthur Li,
  • Wei Yan,
  • Miranda Y. Fong,
  • Wing-Chung Chan,
  • Shizhen Emily Wang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13058-018-1059-y
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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Abstract Background Bone is one of the most frequent metastatic sites of advanced breast cancer. Current therapeutic agents aim to inhibit osteoclast-mediated bone resorption but only have palliative effects. During normal bone remodeling, the balance between bone resorption and osteoblast-mediated bone formation is essential for bone homeostasis. One major function of osteoblast during bone formation is to secrete type I procollagen, which will then be processed before being crosslinked and deposited into the bone matrix. Methods Small RNA sequencing and quantitative real-time PCR were used to detect miRNA levels in patient blood samples and in the cell lysates as well as extracellular vesicles of parental and bone-tropic MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. The effects of cancer cell-derived extracellular vesicles isolated by ultracentrifugation and carrying varying levels of miR-218 were examined in osteoblasts by quantitative real-time PCR, Western blot analysis, and P1NP bone formation marker analysis. Cancer cells overexpressing miR-218 were examined by transcriptome profiling through RNA sequencing to identify intrinsic genes and pathways influenced by miR-218. Results We show that circulating miR-218 is associated with breast cancer bone metastasis. Cancer-secreted miR-218 directly downregulates type I collagen in osteoblasts, whereas intracellular miR-218 in breast cancer cells regulates the expression of inhibin β subunits. Increased cancer secretion of inhibin βA results in elevated Timp3 expression in osteoblasts and the subsequent repression of procollagen processing during osteoblast differentiation. Conclusions Here we identify a twofold function of cancer-derived miR-218, whose levels in the blood are associated with breast cancer metastasis to the bone, in the regulation of type I collagen deposition by osteoblasts. The adaptation of the bone niche mediated by miR-218 might further tilt the balance towards osteolysis, thereby facilitating other mechanisms to promote bone metastasis.

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