Expression Of BMP7 In Ovarian Cancer And Biological Effect Of BMP7 Knockdown On Ovarian Cancer Cells

High BMP7 expression is associated with poor prognosis in ovarian cancer

Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7 (BMP7) is an extracellular signalling protein that belongs to the transforming growth factor-β (TGF- β) superfamily. Previous transcriptomic data suggested that BMP7 expression may be disrupted in ovarian carcinoma and may play an important role in the aggressiveness of the disease. However, the protein expression in patient tumours has not been well studied. The current study aimed to assess BMP7 protein expression in a large cohort of ovarian carcinoma patient tumour samples to establish its associations with different clinical endpoints. Ovarian carcinoma tissue samples from 575 patients who underwent surgery for different subtypes of ovarian cancer were used. BMP7 protein expression was analysed by immunohistochemistry using tissue microarray and full face tumour sections. High BMP7 expression is associated with aggressive ovarian cancer clinicopathological variables including advanced FIGO stage, high grade, residual disease and poor overall survival. Elevated cytoplasmic and nuclear BMP7 expression was significantly associated with advanced FIGO stage, high tumour grade, presence of residual tumours and high-grade serous carcinomas (p = 0.001, 0.005, 0.004, <0.001 and p < 0.001, <0.001, 0.002, 0.001 respectively). Increased cytoplasmic and nuclear BMP7 expression was also significantly associated with an adverse overall survival (p = 0.001 and 0.046 respectively). The study highlights the potential of BMP7 as a prognostic tool and as a potential novel target for ovarian cancer therapies to limit disease progression.

The expression of BMP, integrin, ZEB2 in ovarian high-grade serous carcinoma in relation with lymph node metastasis

Ovarian cancer (OC) is clinically important because it is diagnosed late and has metastasis when it is diagnosed. Mortality risk increases 2.75 times in the presence of lymph node (LN) metastasis. During metastasis, many molecules including BMPs originated from stroma, and tumor cells participate through transcription factors and integrins for cytoskeleton regulation during cell migration. We hypothesized an inverse correlation between BMP2 and BMP7 along with changes in ZEB2, and integrin α5β1 in high-grade OCs in relation to LN metastasis. The BMP2 immunoreactivity was strong along with strong ZEB2 and weak integrins' immunoreactivity in samples with LN metastasis. Strong immunoreactivity of BMP7 was accompanied by strong immunoreactivity of integrins in the samples without LN metastasis. Study results showed BMP2's strong positive immunoreactivity and weak BMP7 immunoreactivity in tumor cells with a significantly weak inverse correlation. This inverse correlation should be considered as both BMPs have different effects in the window of cancer progression and invasion.

Bone Morphogenetic Protein Signaling in Cancer; Some Topics in the Recent 10 Years

Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), members of the transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) family, are multifunctional cytokines. BMPs have a broad range of functions, and abnormalities in BMP signaling pathways are involved in cancer progression. BMPs activate the proliferation of certain cancer cells. Malignant phenotypes of cancer cells, such as increased motility, invasiveness, and stemness, are enhanced by BMPs. Simultaneously, BMPs act on various cellular components and regulate angiogenesis in the tumor microenvironment. Thus, BMPs function as pro-tumorigenic factors in various types of cancer. However, similar to TGF-β, which shows both positive and negative effects on tumorigenesis, BMPs also act as tumor suppressors in other types of cancers. In this article, we review important findings published in the recent decade and summarize the pro-oncogenic functions of BMPs and their underlying mechanisms. The current status of BMP-targeted therapies for cancers is also discussed.