Extracellular S100A4(mts1) stimulates invasive growth of mouse endothelial cells and modulates MMP-13 matrix metalloproteinase activity.

S100A4(mts1) protein expression has been strongly associated with metastatic tumor progression. It has been suggested as a prognostic marker for a number of human cancers. It is proposed that extracellular S100A4 accelerates cancer progression by stimulating the motility of endothelial cells, thereby promoting angiogenesis. Here we show that in 3D culture mouse endothelial cells (SVEC 4-10) respond to recombinant S100A4 by stimulating invasive growth of capillary-like structures. The outgrowth is not dependent on the stimulation of cell proliferation, but rather correlates with the transcriptional modulation of genes involved in the proteolytic degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM). Treatment of SVEC 4-10 with the S100A4 protein leads to the transcriptional activation of collagenase 3 (MMP-13) mRNA followed by subsequent release of the protein from the cells. Beta-casein zymography demonstrates enhancement of proteolytic activity associated with MMP-13. This observation indicates that extracellular S100A4 stimulates the production of ECM degrading enzymes from endothelial cells, thereby stimulating the remodeling of ECM. This could explain the angiogenic and metastasis-stimulating activity of S100A4(mts1).

Functional significance of metastasis-inducing S100A4(Mts1) in tumor-stroma interplay.

Causal implication of S100A4 in inducing metastases was convincingly shown previously. However, the mechanisms that associate S100A4 with tumor progression are not well understood. S100A4 protein, as a typical member of the S100 family, exhibits dual, intracellular and extracellular, functions. This work is focused on the extracellular function of S100A4, in particular its involvement in tumor-stroma interplay in VMR (mouse adenocarcinoma cell line) tumor cells, which exhibit stroma-dependent metastatic phenotype. We demonstrated the reciprocal influence of tumor and stroma cells where tumor cells stimulate S100A4 secretion from fibroblasts in culture. In turn, extracellular S100A4 modifies the cytoskeleton and focal adhesions and triggers several other events in tumor cells. We found stabilization of the tumor suppressor protein p53 and modulation of its function. In particular, extracellular S100A4 down-regulates the pro-apoptotic bax and the angiogenesis inhibitor thrombospondin-1 genes. For the first time, we demonstrate here that the S100A4 protein added to the extracellular space strongly stimulates proteolytic activity of VMR cells. This activity most probably is associated with matrix metalloproteinases and, in particular, with matrix metalloproteinase-13. Finally, the application of the recombinant S100A4 protein confers stroma-independent metastatic phenotype on VMR tumor cells. In conclusion, our results indicate that metastasis-inducing S100A4 protein plays a pivotal role in the tumor-stroma environment. S100A4 released either by tumor or stroma cells triggers pro-metastatic cascades in tumor cells.