Angiomotin-p130 inhibits vasculogenic mimicry formation of small cell lung cancer independently of Smad2/3 signal pathway

Lung cancer, the most concerning malignancy worldwide and one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Growing evidence indicates that Angiomotin (Amot)-p130 plays an important role in types of cancer, including breast cancer and gastric cancer. Moreover, evidence suggested that the low Amot-p130 expression correlates with the poor prognosis of lung cancer patients, however, the role and mechanism of Amot-p130 in lung cancer is still unclear. In this study, we showed that Amot-p130 expression was reduced in lung cancer tissues, compared with the adjacent para-carcinoma tissues. In addition, we observed that the reduced expression of Amot-p130 was associated with vasculogenic mimicry (VM) channels formation in lung cancer tissues. Amot-p130 expression was differently expression in lung cancer cell line H446, H1688 and H2227 compared with the normal human lung cells HFL1. To clarify the role of Amot-p130 in lung cancer, we constructed the Amot-p130 expressing H446 cells and Amot-p130 silencing H1299 cells. We confirmed that Amot-p130 overexpression inhibited the migration and invasion of lung cancer cells, whereas its silence promoted cell migration and invasion. Interestingly, we also found that Amot-p130 overexpression suppressed VM tube formation in H446 cells, while its knockdown promoted VM tube formation in H2227 cells. Further studies suggested that Amot-p130 plays roles in M tube formation of lung cancer cell V are independent on smad2/3 signaling pathway. Finally, inoculation of Amot-p130 expressing H446 cells and Amot-p130 silencing H1299 cells into nude mice suppressed tumor growth, when compared with the control group. Based on these results, Amot-p130 serves as a possible diagnostic and therapeutic target in lung cancer patients, and may be an effective mediator of VM formation in lung cancer.