Protein O-glucosyltransferase 1 overexpression downregulates p16 in BT474 human breast cancer cells

Protein O-glucosyltransferase 1 (POGLUT1) is a novel gene that was initially isolated and identified from the bone marrow cells of patients with myelodysplastic syndrome/acute myeloid leukemia. Previous findings have suggested that POGLUT1 promotes the proliferation of U937 human tissue lymphoma cells. Furthermore, POGLUT1 has been identified in other tissues, including the mammary glands, lymph nodes, intestine, liver and spleen. In the present study, in order to investigate the function and target of POGLUT1 in BT474 breast cancer cells, the effect of POGLUT1 on cell proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis and key proteins in the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 signaling pathway was investigated in BT474 cells. The overexpression of POGLUT1 in the presence of TGF-β1 was found to significantly enhance cell viability. Flow cytometric and quantitative polymerase chain reaction analyses revealed that POGLUT1 had an effect on the cell cycle and inhibited the TGF-β1-induced transcriptional upregulation of p16, a major cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI). Furthermore, phosphorylated (p)-Smad3, which has a key role in mediating the TGF-β antiproliferative response, was greatly inhibited by exogenous POGLUT1, suggesting a role for POGLUT1 in the TGF-β1-mediated signaling pathway in the BT474 cell cycle. However, no significant changes were observed in the expression of other CDKIs or in cell apoptosis. The findings of the present study show that the increase in BT474 cell viabilty induced by POGLUT1 is associated with POGLUT1-induced inhibition of the transcriptional upregulation of p16 by TGF-β1, which may be a result of the inhibition of p-Smad3.