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The Tumor Metastasis Suppressor Gene Drg-1 Down-regulates the Expression of Activating Transcription Factor 3 in Prostate Cancer

¹ Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, Illinois; ² Akita Red Cross Hospital, Akita City, Japan; ³ Université Montpellier II, Montpellier, France; and ⁴ Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio

Requests for reprints: Kounosuke Watabe, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, 801 North Rutledge Street, P.O. Box 19626, Springfield, IL 62794-9626. Phone: 217-545-3969; Fax: 217-545-3227; E-mail: kwatabe{at}siumed.edu.

The tumor metastasis suppressor gene Drg-1 has been shown to suppress metastasis without affecting tumorigenicity in immunodeficient mouse models of prostate and colon cancer. Expression of Drg-1 has also been found to have a significant inverse correlation with metastasis or invasiveness in various types of human cancer. However, how Drg-1 exerts its metastasis suppressor function remains unknown. In the present study, to elucidate the mechanism of action of the Drg-1 gene, we did a microarray analysis and found that induction of Drg-1 significantly inhibited the expression of activating transcription factor (ATF) 3, a member of the ATF/cyclic AMP–responsive element binding protein family of transcription factors. We also showed that Drg-1 attenuated the endogenous level of ATF3 mRNA and protein in prostate cancer cells, whereas Drg-1 small interfering RNA up-regulated the ATF3 expression. Furthermore, Drg-1 suppressed the promoter activity of the ATF3 gene, indicating that Drg-1 regulates ATF3 expression at the transcriptional level. Our immunohistochemical analysis on prostate cancer specimens revealed that nuclear expression of ATF3 was inversely correlated to Drg-1 expression and positively correlated to metastases. Consistently, we have found that ATF3 overexpression promoted invasiveness of prostate tumor cells in vitro, whereas Drg-1 suppressed the invasive ability of these cells. More importantly, overexpression of ATF3 in prostate cancer cells significantly enhanced spontaneous lung metastasis of these cells without affecting primary tumorigenicity in a severe combined immunodeficient mouse model. Taken together, our results strongly suggest that Drg-1 suppresses metastasis of prostate tumor cells, at least in part, by inhibiting the invasive ability of the cells via down-regulation of the expression of the ATF3 gene. (Cancer Res 2006; 66(24): 11983-90)

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