ArticleMolecular cancer2015
Single live cell TGF-β signalling imaging: breast cancer cell motility and migration is driven by sub-populations of cells with dynamic TGF-β-Smad3 activity.
Article in Molecular cancer, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Extracellular Vesicles Secreted by Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Drive Non-Invasive Cancer Cell Progression to Metastasis via TGF-β Signalling Hyperactivation.Journal of extracellular vesicles · 2025Article
- The impact of glucocorticoid receptor transactivation on context-dependent cell migration dynamics.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exploring the Immunological Profile in Breast Cancer: Recent Advances in Diagnosis and Prognosis through Circulating Tumor Cells.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Simultaneously targeting extracellular vesicle trafficking and TGF-β receptor kinase activity blocks signaling hyperactivation and metastasis.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2023Article
- Dynamic Visualization of TGF-β/SMAD3 Transcriptional Responses in Single Living Cells.Cancers · 2022Article
- On-Target Anti-TGF-β Therapies Are Not Succeeding in Clinical Cancer Treatments: What Are Remaining Challenges?Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2020Review
- Physical constraints on accuracy and persistence during breast cancer cell chemotaxis.PLoS computational biology · 2019Article
- Coronary artery disease genes SMAD3 and TCF21 promote opposing interactive genetic programs that regulate smooth muscle cell differentiation and disease risk.PLoS genetics · 2018Article
- Live Cell Imaging of the TGF- β/Smad3 Signaling Pathway In Vitro and In Vivo Using an Adenovirus Reporter System.Journal of visualized experiments : JoVE · 2018Article
- Effect and mechanism of RNAi targeting WWTR1 on biological activity of gastric cancer cells SGC7901.Molecular medicine reports · 2018Article
- Extracellular Hsp90 and TGFβ regulate adhesion, migration and anchorage independent growth in a paired colon cancer cell line model.BMC cancer · 2017Article
- Tumor-suppressive microRNA-34a inhibits breast cancer cell migration and invasion via targeting oncogenic TPD52.Tumour biology : the journal of the International Society for Oncodevelopmental Biology and Medicine · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMetastasis is a process where only a small subset of cells is capable of successfully migrating to and propagating at secondary sites. TGF-β signalling is widely known for its role in cancer metastasis and is associated with cell migration in whole cell populations.
findingsWe extend these findings by investigating the role of TGF-β signalling in promoting migration and motility by imaging the signalling activity in live, individual MDA-MB-231 cancer cells utilizing a novel Smad3 Td-Tomato reporter adenovirus. Here we find that not all MDA-MB-231 cancer cells have similar TGF-β mediated Smad3 transcription activity and display at least two distinct migratory populations. Importantly, Smad3 activity was significantly higher within migratory cells compared to non-migrated cells in wound healing and transwell assays. Furthermore, time-lapse experiments showed that MDA-MB-231 cells displaying Smad3 activity moved faster and a greater distance compared to cells not displaying Smad3 reporter activity. Interestingly, despite being more motile than cells with undetectable levels of Smad3 activity, high Smad3 activity was detrimental to cell motility compared to low and medium level of Smad3 activity.
conclusionsWe have developed a method enabling real-time visualization of TGF-β signalling in single live cells. Breast cancer cell motility and migration is driven by sub-populations of cells with dynamic TGF-β-Smad3 activity. Those sub-populations may be responsible for tumor invasion and metastasis.
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