Bone metastatic process of breast cancer involves methylation state affecting E-cadherin expression through TAZ and WWOX nuclear effectors

摘要

We investigated the involvement of Hippo-related pathways in bone metastasis from breast cancer, by evaluating E-cadherin expression downstream of WWdomain-contain-ing oxidoreductase (Wwox) and transcriptional co-activator with PDZ-binding motif (TAZ). These nuclear effectors functioned in a context-specific fashion on transcriptome, depending on breast-cancer aggressiveness and methylation state. Wwox and E-cadherin were found in human specimens of bone metastasis but not in primary-ductal breast carcinoma, while TAZ showed a characteristic localisation in metastasis nuclei.