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Bone Morphogenetic Proteins 2 and 5 Are Down-regulated in Adrenocortical Carcinoma and Modulate Adrenal Cell Proliferation and Steroidogenesis

Departments of ¹ Medicine and ² Pediatric Surgery, University Hospital Innenstadt, Ludwig Maximilians University; ³ Department of Medicine II, University Hospital Munich-Grosshadern, University of Munich, Munich, Germany and ⁴ Institute of Molecular Medicine and Cell Research, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany

Requests for reprints: Felix Beuschlein, Department of Medicine, Endocrine Research, University Hospital Innenstadt, Ziemssenstr. 1, D-80336 Munich, Germany. Phone: 49-89-5160-2110/49-89-5160-2116; Fax: 49-89-5160-4467; E-mail: felix.beuschlein{at}med.uni-muenchen.de.

Key Words: BMP2 • BMP5 • adrenocortical carcinoma • SMAD1/5/8 pathway • proliferation • steroidogenesis

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP) have been shown to affect tumorigenesis in a variety of tumors. Quantitative PCR analysis revealed down-regulation of BMP2 and BMP5 in tissue samples from adrenocortical carcinoma and adrenocortical tumor cell lines compared with normal adrenal glands. Integrity of BMP-dependent pathways in these cell lines could be shown by activation of the Smad1/5/8 pathway with subsequent increase of ID protein expression upon incubation with BMP2 or BMP5. On a functional level, BMP treatment resulted in inhibition of cell proliferation and viability in a dose- and time-dependent manner. This growth inhibitory effect was associated with BMP-dependent reduction of AKT phosphorylation under baseline conditions and under insulin-like growth factor costimulation. Furthermore, steroidogenic function, including melanocortin-2 receptor and steroidogenic enzyme expressions, was profoundly reduced. In vitro demethylation treatment and overexpression of GATA6 resulted in reactivation of BMP-dependent pathways with concomitant modulation of steroidogenesis. Taken together, we show that loss of expression of members of the BMP family of ligands is a common finding in adrenocortical tumors and we provide evidence that BMP-dependent pathways are likely to be involved in the modulation of the malignant and functional phenotype of adrenocortical cancer cells. [Cancer Res 2009;69(14):5784–92]

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