CD151 promotes breast cancer metastasis by activating TGF-β1/Smad signaling pathway
Authors: S-J Zhao
Q Wang
H Zhang
H-D Zhao
J Li
D-T Gao
Journal: European review for medical and pharmacological sciences (2018)
Discipline: PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY
Keywords: CD151; breast cancer; qRT-PCR; metastasis; prognosis
Affiliations: Department of Breast Surgery, The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Dalian, China. .

Abstract:  Objective: This study aimed to explore the expression characteristics of CD151 in breast cancer (BC) and to further study its role in the development of BC and potential regulatory mechanisms. Patients and methods: Quantitative Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the level of CD151 in 82 pairs of BC tissues and adjacent normal ones, and the relationship between CD151 expression and BC pathological parameters and prognosis was analyzed. CD151 expression in BC cells was further validated using qRT-PCR. The CD151 knockdown model was constructed in BC cell lines including MCF-7 and SKBR3 using the small interference RNA. The cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and transwell assay were used to analyze the effect of CD151 on the biological function of BC cells, and finally Western blot was performed to explore its underlying mechanism. Results: QRT-PCR analysis revealed that CD151 level in BC tissues was strikingly higher than that in normal ones, and the difference was statistically significant. Compared with patients with low CD151 level, patients with high CD151 level had worse tumor stage, lymph node metastasis, and distant metastases. The higher the incidence of metastasis, the lower the overall survival rate. Compared with the negative control group, the ability of cell proliferation or invasion and migration in the CD151 knockdown group was significantly reduced. In addition, Western blot results demonstrated that the levels of proteins in TGF-β1/Smad pathway, including transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), p-Smad2, p-Smad3, N-cad, Vimentin and MMP-9, were remarkably decreased in cells of si-CD151 group. Conclusions: The expression of CD151 in BC was significantly increased, which was found evidently associated with BC stage, lymph node or distant metastasis, and poor prognosis. Meanwhile, CD151 may promote the proliferation and invasion of BC by regulating TGF-β1/Smad pathway. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 Fig 1D.  Kaplan-Meier survival curves of patients with BC based on CD151 expression. Patients in the high expression group had a significantly more unfavorable prognosis than those in high expression group . ![file] Another manifestation of Hoya s Law for J.BUOn and ERMPS...  When 40 or 50 cases of any given cancer are dichotomised into half-groups of high- or low-expression of any given nc-RNA, survival rate for one half-group or both will drop to 0% at 75 months. Other examples, from left to right: - Fig 1 from [Zang et al (2020)] - Fig 1 from [Li et al (2020)] - Fig 1, and Fig 4D, from [Cui et al (2019)] - Fig 1D from [Gao et al (2019)] . ![file] *[left]* Figure 1C from [Wu et al (2020)] . *[right]* Figs 1D, 3E from [Wu et al (2019)] . ![file] , 
 Figure 3A. * Red boxes: Two migration panels appear to show an overlap * Yellow boxes: Two migration panels appear to show an overlap ![file] , 
 Figure 1 s legend reads:  Figure 1. A, B, The expression of CD151 in 82 pairs of ESCC tissue was significantly decreased by qRT-PCR . Can the authors please explain what is shown in Figure 1B? I only see 20 pairs, not 82, and the relative data expression does not seem to match that shown in Figure 1A. Is this a different set of patients? The description in the legend seems incomplete. ![file] ,