Inhibin subunit beta A promotes cell proliferation and metastasis of breast cancer through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

Abstract

Emerging evidence has demonstrated that inhibin subunit beta A (INHBA) is dysregulated and plays a critical role in various cancers. With the development of sequencing technology, studies have discovered that INHBA is overexpressed in breast cancer tissues. However, the biological roles of INHBA in breast cancer are still far to clear. In the present study, we analyzed the INHBA expression in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was conducted to assess the expression of INHBA in breast cancer cell lines. Cell proliferation, invasion and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) were determined by using CCK-8, EdU, Transwell and western blot assays. The result showed that INHBA was highly expressed in breast cancer cell lines. Functional analysis revealed that silence or elevation of INHBA inhibited or promoted the proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway-related markers of MCF-7 cells. Mechanically, blocking of Wnt/β-catenin pathway by XAV939 reversed the promotion effect of INHBA overexpression on breast cancer cells’ proliferation, migration and invasion. Our findings emphasized that INHBA may act as an oncogene via activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, which may provide a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of breast cancer.

Hesperidin inhibits tobacco smoke‑induced pulmonary cell proliferation and EMT in mouse lung tissues via the p38 signaling pathway

“…A number of signaling pathways control abnormal EMT and cell proliferation, including the Wnt/β-catenin, MAPK and NF-κB signaling pathways (57)(58)(59). The MAPK pathway regulates physiological processes and pathologies, such as cell proliferation, apoptosis, inflammation, cell motility, differentiation and tumorigenesis (60,61).…”

Decidualization of human endometrial stromal cells requires steroid receptor coactivator-3

“…Also linked to cellular proliferation, migration and invasion in other physiologies, inhibin beta A (also known as INHBA) was originally recognized as a subunit for the closely related activin and inhibin glycoproteins, which exert opposing functional effects. However, INHBA perturbation alone has been associated with aggressive tumor behavior, including acceleration of cell proliferation, epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration and invasion (78)(79)(80). Noteworthy, INHBA has been detected in the human endometrium and endometrial pathologies (81, 82); however, the role of INHBA in the endometrial stromal cell remains an open question.…”

A Whole New Comprehension about ncRNA-Encoded Peptides/Proteins in Cancers

“…As a highly conserved pathway, the Wnt/β-catenin pathway is widely involved in a number of malignant events, such as cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, vasculogenesis and metastasis [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 ]. In general, β-catenin is located in the cytoplasm and degraded by the destruction complex, which consists of Axin, adenomatosis polyposis coli (APC), glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β), protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A), and casein kinase 1α (CK1α) in the absence of Wnt ligand.…”