The type III transforming growth factor-beta receptor as a novel tumor suppressor gene in prostate cancer

The transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) signaling pathway has an important role in regulating normal prostate epithelium, inhibiting proliferation, differentiation, and both androgen deprivation-induced and androgen-independent apoptosis. During prostate cancer formation, most prostate cancer cells become resistant to these homeostatic effects of TGF-beta. Although the loss of expression of either the type I (TbetaRI) or type II (TbetaRII) TGF-beta receptor has been documented in approximately 30% of prostate cancers, most prostate cancers become TGF-beta resistant without mutation or deletion of TbetaRI, TbetaRII, or Smads2, 3, and 4, and thus, the mechanism of resistance remains to be defined. Here, we show that type III TGF-beta receptor (TbetaRIII or betaglycan) expression is decreased or lost in the majority of human prostate cancers as compared with benign prostate tissue at both the mRNA and protein level. Loss of TbetaRIII expression correlates with advancing tumor stage and a higher probability of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) recurrence, suggesting a role in prostate cancer progression. The loss of TbetaRIII expression is mediated by the loss of heterozygosity at the TGFBR3 genomic locus and epigenetic regulation of the TbetaRIII promoter. Functionally, restoring TbetaRIII expression in prostate cancer cells potently decreases cell motility and cell invasion through Matrigel in vitro and prostate tumorigenicity in vivo. Taken together, these studies define the loss of TbetaRIII expression as a common event in human prostate cancer and suggest that this loss is important for prostate cancer progression through effects on cell motility, invasiveness, and tumorigenicity.