1. Association of β-catenin with P-Smad3 but not LEF-1 dissociates in vitro profibrotic from anti-inflammatory effects of TGF-β1
- Author
-
Changqi Wang, Hong Zhao, Ya Wang, Ye Zhao, Yiping Wang, Bo Niu, J. Guy Lyons, David Harris, Jianlin Zhang, Xinrui Tian, Thian Kui Tan, Qi Cao, Michael Kahn, Vincent W. Lee, Guoping Zheng, So Ra Lee, and Tania Tsatralis
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition ,Lymphoid Enhancer-Binding Factor 1 ,Blotting, Western ,Anti-Inflammatory Agents ,SMAD ,Biology ,Cell Line ,Transforming Growth Factor beta1 ,Mice ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Animals ,Immunoprecipitation ,Smad3 Protein ,beta Catenin ,Gene knockdown ,Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ,Wnt signaling pathway ,Cell Biology ,In vitro ,Cell biology ,Blot ,Endocrinology ,Microscopy, Fluorescence ,Cell culture ,Catenin ,Protein Binding ,Transforming growth factor - Abstract
Summary Transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1) is known to be both anti-inflammatory and profibrotic. Cross-talk between TGF-β/Smad and Wnt/β-catenin pathways in epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) suggests a specific role for β-catenin in profibrotic effects of TGF-β1. However, no such mechanistic role has been demonstrated for β-catenin in the anti-inflammatory effects of TGF-β1. In the present study, we explored the role of β-catenin in the profibrotic and anti-inflammatory effects of TGF-β1 by using a cytosolic, but not membrane, β-catenin knockdown chimera (F-TrCP-Ecad) and the β-catenin/CBP inhibitor ICG-001. TGF-β1 induced nuclear Smad3/β-catenin complex, but not β-catenin/LEF-1 complex or TOP-flash activity, during EMT of C1.1 (renal tubular epithelial) cells. F-TrCP-Ecad selectively degraded TGF-β1-induced cytoplasmic β-catenin and blocked EMT of C1.1 cells. Both F-TrCP-Ecad and ICG-001 blocked TGF-β1-induced Smad3/β-catenin and Smad reporter activity in C1.1 cells, suggesting that TGF-β1-induced EMT depends on β-catenin binding to Smad3, but not LEF-1 downstream of Smad3, through canonical Wnt. In contrast, in J774 macrophages, the β-catenin level was low and was not changed by interferon-γ (IFN-γ) or lipopolysaccharide (LPS) with or without TGF-β1. TGF-β1 inhibition of LPS-induced TNF-α and IFN-γ-stimulated inducible NO synthase (iNOS) expression was not affected by F-TrCP-Ecad, ICG-001 or by overexpression of wild-type β-catenin in J774 cells. Inhibition of β-catenin by either F-TrCP-Ecad or ICG-001 abolished LiCl-induced TOP-flash, but not TGF-β1-induced Smad reporter, activity in J774 cells. These results demonstrate for the first time that β-catenin is required as a co-factor of Smad in TGF-β1-induced EMT of C1.1 epithelial cells, but not in TGF-β1 inhibition of macrophage activation. Targeting β-catenin may dissociate the TGF-β1 profibrotic and anti-inflammatory effects.
- Published
- 2013