Investigate the role of PTEN in chemotaxis of human breast cancer cells

Chemotaxis plays an important role in metastasis of cancer cells. In the current study, we investigated the role of PTEN, a tumor suppressor, in chemotaxis of human breast cancer cells. Over-expression of PTEN inhibited EGF-induced chemotaxis, probably due to an overall reduction of PIP3 levels. Disruption of PTEN by siRNA caused a marked decrease in chemokinesis, cell adhesion, and membrane spreading, resulting in a severe defect in chemotaxis. In PTEN disrupted cells, PDK1, AKT, and PKCζ exhibited elevated basal activities, which prevented EGF-induced further activation of these molecules. In the absence of EGF, active PDK1 was detected on multiple directions of the plasma membranes of PTEN disrupted cells, which competed against EGF-induced gradient sensing. To confirm the biological relevance of in vitro studies, both PTEN disrupted cells and its parental human breast cancer cells were injected into tail veins of SCID mice. Mice injected with PTEN disrupted cancer cells showed a marked decrease in lung metastasis. Taken together, our data show that PTEN plays a non-redundant role in EGF-induced chemotaxis of human breast cancer cells, and an optimal level of PTEN is required in these responses.