Background
Breast cancer is the most common cancer, and is a leading cause of death among females [
1‐
3]. Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which is defined by a lack of the estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR), and the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) receptor, is resistant to conventional hormone and anti-HER2-targeted therapies [
4,
5]. Therefore, TNBC has a higher recurrence and mortality rate compared to other breast cancer subtypes [
6]. Thus, investigating the mechanism of cancer development in TNBC tumors will likely be highly beneficial in monitoring tumor progression and enhancing the overall prognosis [
7].
Ribosomes, the organelles that catalyze protein synthesis, consist of a small 40S subunit and a large 60S subunit [
8]. Together these subunits are composed of four RNA species and approximately 80 structurally distinct ribosomal proteins [
9]. In eukaryotes, the ribosomal stalk complex is comprised of a RP Large P0 (P0) subunit and two heterodimers of RP Large P1 (RPLP1) and RP Large P2 (RPLP2) [
10]. RPLP1 plays an important role in the elongation step of protein synthesis [
11]. The C-terminal end of RPLP1 is nearly identical to the C-terminal end of the ribosomal phosphoproteins P0 and P2, which can interact with P0 and P2 to form a pentameric complex consisting of P1 and P2 dimers and a P0 monomer [
12,
13]. During central nervous system development, RPLP1 promotes embryonic fibroblast senescence-associated proliferation [
14]. During flavivirus infection, RPLP1 and RPLP2 are important factors for virus translation and may represent a regulatory step for the translation of specific cellular mRNAs [
15]. An increasing number of studies show RPLP1 plays essential roles in cancer development [
16]. In colon cancer, RPLP1 expression was fivefold up-regulated in cancerous versus normal tissues [
12]. RPLP1 expression is also elevated in gynecologic tumors, including endometrial and ovarian cancers [
17]. However, the expression patterns of RPLP1 in breast cancer tissues, especially in TNBC, have not been thoroughly explored.
In our previous pre-experiment, we compared the proteome extracted from TNBC cancers with and without metastasis and found that RPLP1 was 1.6-fold more abundant in metastatic TNBC cancer versus non-metastatic cancer. In the current study, we further explored the role of RPLP1 in TNBC metastasis and determined that RPLP1 may be a novel prognostic marker for TNBC.
Materials and methods
Patients and tissue samples
TNBC tissues and adjacent non-tumorous tissues were obtained from 81 TNBC patients who underwent curative resection between 2006 and 2014 at the Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University. All cases were newly diagnosed female patients, who had not yet undergone surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or biological therapy. Survival data were acquired by periodic interviews with their relatives. Tissue samples were processed immediately following the surgical resection. For histological examination, all tumors and adjacent non-tumor tissues were fixed in formalin and embedded in paraffin blocks. Histological slides stained with hematoxylin and eosin were examined by three pathologists. All studies were approved by the Ethics Committee of Affiliated Hospital of Nantong University.
Immunohistochemistry
TNBC sections were deparaffinized and rehydrated with graded ethanol, soaked in EDTA (1 mmol/L, pH 8.0), and then heated to 121 °C in an autoclave for three min to retrieve the antigen. After natural cooling and rinsing with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH 7.2), 0.3% hydrogen peroxide was applied for 20 min to block endogenous peroxide activity. Thereafter, 10% goat serum was applied for 1 h at room temperature to block any nonspecific reactions. After washing with PBS (pH 7.2), the sections were incubated with a rabbit anti-RPLP1 polyclonal antibody (diluted 1:100; Abcam, ab121190, USA) for 2 h. Negative control slides were processed in parallel using a nonspecific IgG antibody (diluted 1:100; Abcam, USA) at the same concentration as the primary antibody. All sections were processed using the peroxidase-anti-peroxidase kit according to the manufacturer’s instructions (Dako, Germany).
Immunohistochemical evaluation
All the immunostained slides were evaluated by three pathologists who were blinded to sample identity. To assess RPLP1 expression, at least five high-power fields (400×) were chosen for each specimen. More than 500 cells were counted to determine the mean percentage of positively stained cells. Staining results were scored semi-quantitatively. As previous reported [
18], the percentage of positive cells was scored as follows: 0 (< 10%), 1 (10–30%), 2 (30–50%), and 3 (50–70%). The staining intensity was scored as follows: 0 (negative), 1 (moderate), 2 (positive), or 3 (strongly positive). The immunostaining score, which value ranged from 0 to 9, was calculated as the level of RPLP1 expression. For statistical analysis, 0–4 is defined as low expression, while 5–9 is defined as high expression.
Western blotting
Cells were promptly homogenized in lysis buffer and then centrifuged at 13,000g for 20 min at 4 °C. The supernatant was diluted twofold in SDS loading buffer and denatured at 100 °C for 15 min. An equivalent amount of protein from each sample was loaded onto a 10% SDS-PAGE gel and then transferred to a PVDF membrane (Millipore, USA). The membranes were incubated overnight at 4 °C with the primary antibodies. The antibodies were as follows: anti-RPLP1 (1:500, ab121190, Abcam, Cambridge, MA, USA), anti-E-cadherin antibody (1:1000, ab1416, Abcam), anti-vimentin antibody (1:1000, ab92547, Abcam), anti-N-cadherin antibody (1:1000, ab18203, Abcam), anti-Snail antibody (1:1000, ab180714), and anti-β-actin (1:5000; Abcam). After washing three times with tris-buffered saline with 0.1% tween-20 (TBST) for 5 min each time, the membranes were then incubated with horseradish peroxidase-conjugated secondary human anti-mouse or anti-rabbit antibodies (1:2000; Abcam) for 2 h at room temperature. The bands were then detected using an enhanced chemiluminescence detection system (Bio-Rad, USA).
Real-time quantitative PCR
The mRNA expression levels of RPLP1 in tissues were assessed by the Real-time quantitative PCR method. The total RNA of tissues was extracted using TRIzol
® reagent (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Carlsbad, CA) according to the manufacturers’ instructions. cDNA for mRNA was synthesized using a Omniscript Reverse Transcription kit (Qiagen, Valencia, CA). For detecting the mRNA level of
RPLP1, qPCR was conducted on the Mastercycler Ep Realplex (Eppendorf 2S, Hamburg, Germany). β-actin was used as an internal control. The relative mRNA expression levels were evaluated by the 2
−ΔΔCt method [
19]. The primer sequences were as follows: For RPLP1: forward, 5′-TGGCCTGGCTTGTTTGC-3′, reverse: 5′-CTCGGATTCTTCTTTCTTTGCTT-3′; For β-actin: forward, 5′-GCGTGACATTAAGGAGAAG-3′, reverse: 5′-GAAGGAAGGCTGGAAGAG-3′.
Cell cultures
TNBC cell lines MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-436, MDA-MB-468, MDA-MB-453, and the normal breast epithelial cell line MCF-10A were obtained from the Cell Bank of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Shanghai, China). These TNBC cells were cultured in Leibovitz’s L-15 Medium (L15 medium, Gibco, USA) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS, Gibco, USA) in an incubator at 37 °C without CO2. The MCF-10A cells were cultured in MEGM medium (Lonza/Clonetics, USA) in an incubator at 37 °C with 5% CO2. All the cells were passaged every 3–5 days. At the time of cell culture, we have tested for Mycoplasma infection, and there is no mycoplasma infection in each culture.
RPLP1 knockdown or overexpression vector construction and transfection
The human RPLP1 shRNA vector, which targets sequence 5′-CATTAAAGCAGCCGGTGTAAATGTTGAGC-3′, was subcloned into the PLKO.1 vector (Invitrogen), and the RPLP1 expression vector, which contains the RPLP1 cDNA sequence, was subcloned into the PLKI.1 vector (Invitrogen). For vector transfection, the cells were seeded the day before transfection using antibiotic-free L15 medium with 10% FBS. Transient transfection of the shRNA vectors or overexpression vector was carried out using Lipofectamine 2000 in OptiMEM media, as suggested by the manufacturer (Thermo-Fisher). Cells were incubated with the vectors and lipofectamine reagent complexes for 4 h at 37 °C. FBS was then added to the cells to achieve a final concentration of 10% in medium. Two days after transfection, puromycin (Sigma-Aldrich, USA) was added to the media at 1 μg/mL for 1 week of selection. The expression levels of the target genes were determined by Western blot analysis.
Cell proliferation assay
The cell proliferation assay was performed with the Brdu assay kit according to the manufacturer’s protocol (Roche, Germany). Generally, cells were incubated with 100 µM Brdu labeling solution for 4 h at 37 °C. After removing the culture media, the cells were fixed, and the DNA was denatured with FixDenat solution. The anti-Brdu-POD working solution and substrate solution were then added, and the absorbances of the samples were measured by an ELISA plate reader at 370 nm.
Cells were seeded in a 6-well plate at a density (1 × 103 cells/well). After cultured for 10 days, cells were fixed with 4% paraformaldehyde and then counted after staining with crystal violet. Three independent experiments were performed.
Cell invasion assay
For the invasion assay, cells were suspended in 500 µL serum-free media and placed in the upper compartment of the invasion chamber coated with Matrigel (BD Biosciences). The lower compartment was imbued with a complete medium as the chemoattractant. The experiment was performed in triplicate.
Cell migration assay
A 500 μL cell suspension was placed in each insert chamber containing medium free of FBS, while the medium in the lower chamber contained 10% FBS. The cells that had migrated and attached to the lower surface of the insert were fixed with 4% formaldehyde and stained with crystal violet. After washing with PBS, the number of cells was counted randomly in five scopes under a microscope (400×).
In vivo mouse model
In this study, all animal experiments were approved by the Animal Ethics committee. Nude mice from each group (n = 6) received a tail vein injection of 1 × 10
5 cells per week for three consecutive weeks [
20], and the number of cells injected into each tail vein each time was 1 × 10
5. The presence of lung metastases was determined by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining after 10 weeks.
Statistical analysis
All statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS 20.0 (Statistical Product and Service Solutions, USA). The association between RPLP1 expression and clinicopathological features was computed using the Chi square (χ2) test. RPLP1 in TNBC cells was studied using the Spearman rank correlation test, because the data were not normally distributed. For survival analysis, the log rank test and Kaplan–Meier method were used. Multivariate analysis was performed with the Cox’s proportional hazards model. For all cases, P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Discussion
Triple negative breast cancer bears the worst prognosis of any breast cancer, because it is resistant to most conventional therapies [
21]. Metastasis is the main cause of patient death in women with TNBC. Here, we show RPLP1 expression is elevated in the TNBC, especially in metastatic tissues when compared with normal tissues, implicating RPLP1 may be involved in the development and metastasis of TNBC. In addition, we showed that RPLP1 promotes the cell epithelial-mesenchymal transition and may play a direct role in influencing cancer spread.
Other research studies have reported that RPLP1 is associated with the progression of colon cancer and gynecologic tumors [
21]. In colon cancer, RPLP1 gene expression is significantly enhanced [
21]. In 140 biopsies of gynecologic cancers (46 endometrioid and 94 ovarian), RPLP1 was up-regulated in 27% of the tumors [
17]. As breast cancer represents another important feminine cancer, that is associated with hormone changes, we elected to investigate the role of RPLP1 in breast tumors [
22]. TNBC is an especially devastating form of breast cancer that lacks expression of ER, PR, and Her-2 and therefore is generally resistant to common anti-hormone and anti-Her-2 therapies. Here, we show that RPLP1 expression is associated with TNBC and its clinicopathological features, such as axillary lymph node status, vein invasion, and metastasis. Ultimately, elevated RPLP1 expression (at both the RNA and protein level) was associated with a poor prognosis of TNBC.
When we examined the relationship between RPLP1 and tumor characteristics, we determined that high RPLP1 expression promotes cell invasion. However, knocking down RPLP1 expression did not affect cell proliferation, indicating that RPLP1 largely affects motility mechanisms and metastasis, rather than tumor growth. Increasing numbers of studies have shown that the epithelial-mesenchymal transition is a key mechanism involved in cancer metastasis [
17,
23]. In conjunction with these findings, we determined that RPLP1 expression promoted the epithelial-mesenchymal transition in TNBC metastasis.
Authors’ contributions
Conceived and designed the experiments: ZXH, QX ZMS. Performed the experiments: ZXH, QX, JW, YYQ. Analyzed and interpreted the data: ZXH, XMM. Wrote the paper: ZXH, WWS, ZMS. Collected tissue samples: QX, XW, YHC, YYQ, WWS. Decided to submit the article for publication: ZXH, QX, XW, JW, XMM, YHC, YYQ, WWS, ZMS. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.