Differential regulation of human thymosin beta 15 isoforms by transforming growth factor beta 1

We recently identified an additional isoform of human thymosin beta 15 (also known as NB-thymosin beta, gene name TMSB15A) transcribed from an independent gene, and designated TMSB15B. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether these isoforms were differentially expressed and functional. Our data show that the TMSB15A and TMSB15B isoforms have distinct expression patterns in different tumor cell lines and tissues. TMSB15A was expressed at higher levels in HCT116, DU145, LNCaP, and LNCaP-LN3 cancer cells. In MCF-7, SKOV-3, HT1080, and PC-3MLN4 cells, TMSB15A and TMSB15B showed approximately equivalent levels of expression, while TMSB15B was the predominant isoform expressed in PC-3, MDA-MB-231, NCI-H322, and Caco-2 cancer cells. In normal human prostate and prostate cancer tissues, TMSB15A was the predominant isoform expressed. In contrast, normal colon and colon cancer tissue expressed predominantly TMSB15B. The two gene isoforms are also subject to different transcriptional regulation. Treatment of MCF-7 breast cancer cells with transforming growth factor beta 1 repressed TMSB15A expression but had no effect on TMSB15B. siRNA specific to the TMSB15B isoform suppressed cell migration of prostate cancer cells to epidermal growth factor, suggesting a functional role for this second isoform. In summary, our data reveal different expression patterns and regulation of a new thymosin beta 15 gene paralog. This may have important consequences in both tumor and neuronal cell motility.