Expression data from PC3 cocultured with Osteoblasts

Inhibitors of Wnt signaling have been previously shown to be involved in prostate cancer (PC) metastasis; however the role of Sclerostin (Sost) has not yet been explored. Here we show that elevated Wnt signaling derived from Sost deficient osteoblasts (OBSOSTKO) promotes PC invasion while rhSOST has an inhibitory effect. In contrast, rhDKK1 promotes PC elongation and filopodia formation, morphological changes characteristic of an invasive phenotype. Furthermore, rhDKK1 was found to activate canonical Wnt signaling in PC3 cells as quantified by TOPFLASH reporter and b-catenin activity, suggesting that SOST and DKK1 have opposing roles on Wnt signaling in this context. Gene expression analysis of PC3 cells co-cultured with OBs exhibiting varying amounts of Wnt signaling identified CRIM1 as one of the transcripts up-regulated under highly invasive conditions. Following further analysis we found that CRIM1 increases PC3 invasion, complexes with b-catenin, and promotes cell-adhesion, suggesting that elevated Wnt signaling secreted from the bone may promote PC tropism by promoting CRIM1 expression and facilitating cancer cell invasion and adhesion to bone. We concluded that SOST and DKK1 have opposing effects on PC3 cell invasion and that bone-derived Wnt signaling positively contributes to the invasive phenotypes of metastatic cancer cells by activating CRIM1 expression and facilitating PC-OB physical interaction. As such, we investigated the effects of high concentrations of SOST in vivo. We found that PC3-cells overexpressing SOST injected via tail vein did not readily metastasize in NSG xenografts, suggesting that targeting the molecular bone environment may influence bone metastatic outcome in clinical settings.

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