Since bone metastatic breast cancer is an incurable disease, causing significant morbidity and mortality, understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms would be highly valuable. Here, we describe in vitro and in vivo evidence for the importance of serine biosynthesis in the metastasis of breast cancer to bone. We first characterized the bone metastatic propensity of the MDA-MB-231(SA) cell line variant as compared to the parental MDA-MB-231 cells by radiographic and histological observations in the inoculated mice. Genome-wide gene expression profiling of this isogenic cell line pair revealed that all the three genes involved in the L-serine biosynthesis pathway, phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH), phosphoserine aminotransferase 1 (PSAT1), and phosphoserine phosphatase (PSPH) were upregulated in the highly metastatic variant. This pathway is the primary endogenous source for L-serine in mammalian tissues. Consistently, we observed that the proliferation of MDA-MB-231(SA) cells in serine-free conditions was dependent on PSAT1 expression. In addition, we observed that L-serine is essential for the formation of bone resorbing human osteoclasts and may thus contribute to the vicious cycle of osteolytic bone metastasis. High expression of PHGDH and PSAT1 in primary breast cancer was significantly associated with decreased relapse-free and overall survival of patients and malignant phenotypic features of breast cancer. In conclusion, high expression of serine biosynthesis genes in metastatic breast cancer cells and the stimulating effect of L-serine on osteoclastogenesis and cancer cell proliferation indicate a functionally critical role for serine biosynthesis in bone metastatic breast cancer and thereby an opportunity for targeted therapeutic interventions.
Enhanced serine production by bone metastatic breast cancer cells stimulates osteoclastogenesis.
Specimen part, Cell line
View SamplesMaintaining metabolic homeostasis in response to fluctuating nutrient intake requires intricate coordination between tissues of multicellular animals. The insulin/glucagon axis is well known to hormonally coordinate organism-wide carbohydrate metabolism. The ChREBP/Mondo-Mlx transcription factors regulate glycolytic and lipogenic genes locally in hepatocytes and adipocytes, but its role in systemic metabolic homeostasis has remained poorly understood. We demonstrate that Mondo-Mlx controls gene activity in several peripheral tissues of Drosophila melanogaster, where it regulates nutrient digestion and transport as well as carbohydrate, amino acid and lipid metabolism. In addition to directly regulating metabolic genes Mondo-Mlx controls a regulatory network composed of the Activin ligand Dawdle and GLI similar transcription factor Sugarbabe. Dawdle and Sugarbabe contribute to the regulation of a subset of Mondo-Mlx-dependent processes, including sugar-induced de novo synthesis of serine and fatty acids. In summary, our study establishes Mondo-Mlx sugar sensor as a master regulator of organismal metabolic homeostasis upon sugar feeding. Overall design: Control (sug17d/+) and sugarbabe null mutant (sug17d/sug def) third instar larvae were fed control low sugar or high sugar diet and total RNA was extracted from the whole larvae.
Mondo-Mlx Mediates Organismal Sugar Sensing through the Gli-Similar Transcription Factor Sugarbabe.
Specimen part, Subject
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