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ABBS 2009,41(04): Regulation of TGF-b signaling by Smad7

 


Original Paper

Pdf file on Regulation of TGF-b signaling by Smad7

 

Xiaohua Yan, Ziying Liu, and Yeguang Chen*

 

State Key Laboratory of Biomembrane and Membrane Biotechnology, Department
of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology,

 

*Correspondence address. Tel: t86-10-62795184;
Fax:
t86-10-62794376; E-mail: [email protected]

 

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-b is a pleiotropic cytokine regulating a
variety of cellular processes such as cell growth, differentiation, apoptosis,
migration, cell adhesion, and immune response. In the well-understood classical
TGF-
b signaling pathway, TGF-b activates Smad signalling via its two
cell surface receptors such as T
bRII and ALK5/TbRI, leading to Smad-mediated
transcriptional regulation. In addition, TGF-
b may also activate other signaling
pathways like mitogen-activated protein kinase, PI3K, etc. The signaling of
TGF-
b is finely regulated at different levels. Inhibitory
Smads, including Smad6 and Smad7, are key regulators of TGF-
b/bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)
signaling by negative feedback loops. They can form stable complexes with
activated type I receptors and thereby blocking the phosphorylation of R-Smads,
or recruit ubiquitin E3 ligases, such as Smurf1/2, resulting in the
ubiquitination and degradation of the activated type I receptors. Besides,
these inhibitory Smad proteins also inhibit TGF-
b/BMP signaling in the nucleus by
interacting with transcriptional repressors, such as histone deacetylases,
Hoxc-8, and CtBP, or disrupting the formation of the TGF-
b-induced functional Smad-DNA
complexes. Smad7 is in turn regulated by different stimuli, including TGF-
b, IFN-g, TNF-a as well as ultraviolet and TPA, and
mediates the crosstalk between TGF-
b and other signaling pathways.
Deregulation of Smad7 expression has been associated with various human
diseases, such as tissue fibrosis, inflammatory disease as well as
carcinogenesis. Overexpression of Smad7 has been shown to antagonize TGF-
b-mediated fibrosis, carcinogenesis,
and inflammation, suggesting a therapeutic potential of Smad7 to treat these
diseases.

 

Keywords     TGF-b; signal transduction;
Smad7;
feedback loop; crosstalk

 

Introduction

 

Transforming growth factor (TGF)-b family cytokines have been found to play diverse roles in regulating growth, differentiation, immune response as well as development in multi-organ systems. Up to now, more than 30 factors have been discovered to belong to TGF-b superfamily, which is
generally divided into
two subfamilies. One
of them is consisted of TGF-
b, activin, Nodal,
myostatin, inhibin, etc. The other one
includes BMPs, anti-mullerian
hormone (AMH, or
MIS), as well as many
growth and differentiation factors
(GDFs) [1,2].

There are three species of TGF-b (TGF-b1, TGF-b2, and TGF-b3) in mammalian cells. TGF-bs are synthesized via inactive
precursors, which cannot bind to
their receptors until
being activated. After released from
cells, they associate
with latency-associated protein
(LAP) and form a small
inactive complex. In the extracellular
matrix, this complex
is bound by latent
TGF-b-binding protein
(LTBP), a component of the
extracellular matrix
that is necessary for the secretion
and storage of TGF-b [3]. The latent TGF-b can be activated either by enzymatic proteolysis, executed by plasmin, integrin, or thrombin, or through a conformational change [4,5].

 

Overview of TGF-b Signaling Pathways

 

Once activated, the TGF-b homodimer transduces
its
signal by bringing together two types of serine/threonine kinase receptorstwo type I receptors
and two type II
receptors. ALK5 (TbRI) and TbRII are specific for TGF-b. Upon TGF-b binding, ALK5 is phosphorylated and activated by the constitutively active TbRII at the GS region, which is important for the activation of its kinase domain as well as the recruitment of R-Smads. The phosphorylation of R-Smads at the C-terminal SSXS motif by
activated type I receptor is an essential
step for signal
transduction. Of these R-Smads, Smad2
and 3 are engaged in
signal transduction of TGF-
b, activin, and Nodal
group cytokines, whereas Smad1, 5,
and 8 are necessary
for the other groups including BMPs
and GDFs. Once
activated, R-Smads form complexes
with a common Smad
(Co-Smad, Smad4), enter the
nucleus and regulate
transcription of target genes along
with different
cofactors [6]. Both R-Smads and Smad4
are characterized by
two conserved regions known as
MH1 domain at the
N-terminus and MH2 domain at the
C-terminus,
respectively, which are joined together by a
linker region. The MH1
domain of R-Smads and Smad4
plays important roles
in cytoplasmic anchoring, nuclear
import, DNA binding, and
regulation of gene transcription,
while the MH2 domain
is responsible for Smad
receptor interaction, Smad hetero-complex formation, cytoplasmic anchoring as well as transactivation of target genes [7].

Besides the canonical Smad-mediated signaling pathway (Fig. 1), it has long been
recognized that
TGF-b can also regulate some
cellular or physiological
processes independent
of Smad proteins. There is evidence
showing that Smad4 is
not indispensable for the
development of the
mammary gland, liver, or pancreas
in mice [2,8]. We have
demonstrated that the nucleocapsid
(N) protein of severe
acute respiratory syndromeassociated
coronavirus can bind
to Smad3, interfere with
the complex formation
between Smad3 and Smad4, and
promote Smad3p300 complex formation in the nucleus [9], indicating a
novel mode of Smad3 effect in a
Smad4-independent
manner. TIF1
g is also found to selectively associate
with phosphorylated Smad2/

 

Negative Regulation of TGF-b Signaling by Smad7

 

As mentioned above, TGF-b is a pleiotropic
cytokine
that regulates embryonic development and cellular homeostasis mainly
through the canonical
Smad-mediated
signaling pathway, which appears to be
relatively simple and
consists of only a few essential
components. However,
the signal transduction is finely
regulated both
temporally and spatially at different
levels, including
ligand activation, receptor complex formation,

R-Smads activation, and translocation, as well as transcription in the
nucleus. Many proteins have been
identified to be
associated with the receptors, R-Smads,
or Co-Smad, and
regulate TGF-
b family signaling either in the cytoplasm or in the nucleus. In addition to R-Smads and Co-Smad,
there is a third Smad protein
family, namely the
I-Smads (Smad6 and Smad7), which
have been documented
to play key roles in regulating
signal transduction of
TGF-
b family cytokines. I-Smads are transcriptionally
induced by TGF-
b family cytokines and regulate these
signaling pathways negatively, thus
establishing an
important negative feedback loop. Of
these two I-Smads,
Smad7 is a general antagonist of
TGF-b family, while Smad6 is
specific for BMP signaling.
Smad6 and Smad7 also
have conserved the
C-terminal MH2 domain,
but unlike R-Smads or
Co-Smad, they lack the
N-terminal MH1 domain and the
phosphorylation site
by the type I receptors at the
C-terminal tail. The
N-terminus of these two I-Smads
shares a similarity of
only 36.7%. Both the N-terminus
and MH2 domain of
Smad7 are essential for its specific
inhibition of TGF-b/activin signaling
[14,15]. I-Smads
can also bind to DNA.
For instance, we recently demonstrated
that Smad7 could
function in the nucleus by
binding to the DNA
elements containing the minimal
Smad-binding element
(SBE) CAGA box. By singlemolecule
force spectroscopy,
our results revealed that
Smad7 had similar
binding strength to the oligonucleotides
corresponding to the
CAGA-containing activin
responsive element
(ARE) and the PAI-1 promoter, as
that of Smad4
although, unlike R-Smad or Co-Smad,
Smad7 also exhibits a
binding activity to the mutant
ARE with the CAGA
sequence substituted. Interestingly,
distinct from other
Smad proteins, the MH2 domain, but
not the N-terminal
region, of Smad7 is responsible for
DNA binding [16,17].

I-Smads can antagonize TGF-b family signaling through various mechanisms (Fig. 2). First, Smad7 is shown to form a stable
complex with type I receptors,
therefore leading to
inhibition of R-Smad phosphorylation
and the hetero-complex
formation between
R-Smads and Co-Smad
[18]. Smad7 also recruits the
HECT type of E3
ubiquitin ligases, Smurf1 and Smurf2.
It binds to Smurfs in
the nucleus and translocates into
the cytoplasm in
response to TGF-
b and recruits the ubiquitin ligases to the activated type I receptor ALK5/ TbRI, leading to the
degradation of the receptor through
the proteasomal
pathway. Smad7 itself is also degraded in
this process. Besides,
the E3 ligases Nedd4-2 and
WWP1/Tiul1 can also
promote the degradation of
type I receptor as
well as R-Smads and Smad4, in which
process Smad7 serves
as an adaptor protein [19]. By
employing similar
mechanism, Smad6 interferes with
BMP signaling.
Moreover, Shi
et al. [20] reported that the phosphatase
GADD34-PPIt has been known that Smad6 can interfere with BMP signaling both in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus. Smad6 acts as a transcriptional repressor by interacting with Hoxc-8, or binding to DNA and recruiting transcriptional co-repressor histone deacetylases (HDACs) or CtBP to inhibit the
transcription of target genes [23
26]. Recently, we reported that in some cell lines, such as Hep3B, HeLa, mink lung epithelial Mv1Lu mutant L17, and human normal
lung epithelial HPL-1 cells,
most Smad7 proteins
retain in the nucleus even under
TGF-b stimulation, and Smad7
can exert its inhibitory
effect on TGF-b signaling in the
nucleus [16]. Forced
expression of SmadSeveral proteins have been shown to interact with Smad7 and regulate
TGF-
b signaling (Table 1). A WD protein, STRAP, which
associates with the type I and II
receptors, can also
interact with Smad7, stabilizing the
complex between Smad7
and type I receptor, thus inhibiting
TGF-b signaling
synergistically with Smad7 [27].
AIP4, which is an E3
ubiquitin ligase and induces the
degradation of Smad7,
may negatively regulate TGF-
b signaling without
affecting the turnover of the type I
receptor [28].
Instead, AIP4 may enhance the interaction
between Smad7 and
activated ALK5/T
bRI.

Regulation of the stability of Smad7 protein has been used as another means to influence TGF-b signaling. Arkadia facilitates TGF-b signaling by promoting
the
degradation of Smad7 and Axin may act as an adaptor between Arkadia and Smad7 [29,30]. Jab1/CSN5, which is a component of the COP9 signalosome complex, also regulates the stability of Smad7 and releases Smad7-mediated
suppression of TGF-
b signaling [31]. Hic-5/ARA55 [32],
Yes-associated protein (YAP65) [33],
the salt-inducible
kinase (SIK) [34], and Crk-associated
substrate lymphocyte
type (Cas-L) [35] are identified to
be binding partners of
Smad7 and regulate TGF-
b signaling either positively or
negatively. FKBP12, which is a
cytoplasmic protein
that binds to the immunosuppressant
drugs, Tacrolimus
(FK506) and rapamycin, has been
found to interact with
the GS region of type I receptors
and inhibit signal
transduction of TGF-
b family [36]. Interestingly, it can
serve as an adaptor for the Smad7
Smurf1 complex and promote the ubiquitination and degradation of TbRI [37].

Post-translational modification plays a pivotal role in regulating the function of proteins. As mentioned above, ubiquitination plays an important role in the regulation of the stability of I-Smads, and TGF-b receptors. In addition, Smad7 interacts with p300, a histone acetylase, and could be acetylated at the same lysine residues where ubiquitination occurs. Smad7 can also interact with HDACs as well as SIRT1, and is deacetylated by these enzymes [3840]. The acetylation
of Smad7 inhibits its
ubiquitination and
proteasome-mediated degradation, so
the degradation of
Smad7 is regulated by the balance
between acetylation,
deacetylation, and ubiquitination.

 

Smad7 Connects Other Signaling Pathways With the TGF-b Pathway

 

Smad7 is an important regulator of TGF-b, activin, Nodal, and BMPs signaling via a negative feedback circuit. It is
transcriptionally induced by TGF-
b and BMPs. A perfect SBE has been identified in the promoter of human Smad7, and both Smad2/3 and Smad4 are involved in its
transcriptional induction by TGF-
b [41]. However, full induction of Smad7 by Smad proteins needs other
transcriptional co-activators, such as CBP/
p300, FoxH1, TFE-3
(transcription factor mE3), CBFA
(PEBP2/core-binding
factor A) and ATF2, and so on
[42]. AP1 and SP1 were
also found to promote the
transcription of
Smad7, indicating that other signaling
pathways may be
involved in the transcriptional regulation
of Smad7 (Fig. 2) [43]. Similarly,
Smad6 is also
transcriptionally
induced by BMP/Smad signaling
pathway. Besides CREB,
other factors, such as OAZ
and Runx2, also
upregulate the expression of Smad6
[44,45]. And the
transcriptional co-repressor Ski was
reported to inhibit
the transcription of both Smad6 and
Smad7 [46].

In addition to TGF-b/BMP signaling, the transcription of I-Smads can also be
induced by inflammatory cytokines,
such as interleukin 1,
IFN-
g, and TNF-a [47]. EGF, ultraviolet
irradiation, lamina shear stress as well
as EGF or TPA treatment
can induce Smad7 expression
in a
cell-line-dependent manner, but the mechanisms
remain elusive
[47,48]. Interestingly, Smad7 was shown
to disrupt the
formation of TRAF2
TAK1TAB2/3 complex and inhibit TNF-a/NF-kB signaling [49]. Likewise, Smad6 binds to Pellino-1, an adaptor protein of mammalian interleukin 1 receptor-associated kinase 1 (IRAK1), and thereby promoting TGF-b-mediated anti-inflammatory effects [50]. Since TGF-b has an
antiinflammatory
activity, and usually
acts against those
cytokines, I-Smads
induction by one kind of cytokine
may repress the
signaling of another. So they mediate
the balance and
crosstalk of these signaling pathways.

TGF-b can activate MAPKs, including ERK, JNK, and p38 signaling in a
cell-specific manner.
Accumulating evidence
shows that Smad7 may play
roles in this process.
Mazars
et al. [51] reported that Smad7 could activate
JNK signaling and is essential for
JNK-mediated
apoptosis. TGF-
b induces apoptosis of prostate cancer cells by activating p38 MAPK, and Smad7 may serve as a
scaffold protein in the process
[52,53]. In
prechondrogenic cells, Smad7 inhibits chondrocytic
differentiation
possibly by downregulating
BMP-activated p38 MAPK
pathway [52,53]. Smad7 was
also reported to be
involved in TGF-
b-dependent activation of There are multiple cross-talking steps between TGF-b and Wnt
signaling.
b-catenin, a key signal transducer of Wnt signaling, has
functional interaction with Smad7.
The association of
Smad7 with
b-catenin regulates the transcription of c-myc, which is important
for TGF-
b induced apoptosis of human prostate cancer PC-3U cells [55]. In addition, Smad7 transgenic mice exhibit perturbed hair follicle morphogenesis and differentiation and accelerated
sebaceous gland morphogenesis due to
b-catenin degradation
by the ubiquitin E3 ligase Smurf2
(recruited by Smad7)
and thereby decreased Wnt signaling
[56]. In contrast, a
recent report showed that Smad7
stabilizes b-catenin binding to
E-cadherin and modulates
cellcell adhesion [57]. Therefore, Smad7 can regulate the activity of b-catenin in a cellular
context-dependent
way.

 

The Role of Smad

 

Although Smad7 is a well-documented key antagonist of TGF-b, it has been shown to promote TGF-b-mediated apoptosis of human prostatic carcinoma cells, podocytes, Mv1Lu, MDCK, and COS7 cells by activating MAPK signaling or
repressing NF-
kB signaling [58]. On the other hand, Smad7 can
also inhibit apoptosis induced by
TGF-b in some cell lines,
such as B cells and gastric
epithelial cells [59,60],
suggesting that the function of
Smad7 is context
dependent.

TGF-b plays a key role in fibrosis of different tissues, such as skin, the
liver, kidney, eye, lung as well as cardiovascular
system. It induces the
Smad3-dependent transcription
of fibrillar
collagens, inhibits the degradation of
ECM by downregulating
the expression of matrix
degrading enzymes, and
increases the expression of
metalloproteinase
(MMP) inhibitors, together leading to
the accumulation of
ECM. Elevated TGF-
b level and decreased Smad7 level
are often present in tissues where
an uncontrolled
fibrotic response occurs. Therefore, inhibition
of Smad3 by
overexpression of Smad7 dramatically
reduced fibrotic
responses of the kidney, lung and
liver in animal
models, indicating an important antifibrotic
effect of Smad7 by
antagonizing TGF-
b/Smad3 signaling pathway [6164].

In addition to pro-fibrotic activity, TGF-b also has a major role in the regulation of immune cell functions. TGF-b1 knockout mice showed a multifocal, mixed inflammatory cell
response and tissue necrosis, leading
to organ failure and
death [65]. Consistently, blocking
TGF-b signaling via specific
deletion of TGF-
b type II receptor in T cells
leads to disruption of T-cell development
as well as
homeostasis, resulting in autoimmune
inflammation and death
at last [66]. TGF-
b also regulates the differentiation
and activation of many other leukocytes,
including B cells, NK
cells, dendritic cells, monocytes/
macrophages,
granulocytes, and mast cells [67].
Thus, TGF-b is a key regulator in
immune system
homeostasis, and
dysfunction of TGF-
b may results in disorders of this
system, such as autoimmunity or
inflammatory bowel
disease. In patients with inflammatory
bowel disease, the
phosphorylation level of Smad3
is very low, and the
formation of Smad3
Smad4 complex is also affected, so TGF-b signaling is disrupted despite the abundance of TGF-b in the inflamed gut [68,69]. Instead, Smad7 level is elevated in the tissues with inflammatory bowel disease. When Smad7 was reduced by anti-sense oligonucleotides, Smad3 activation was restored and the inflammation was subsequently inhibited by
endogenous TGF-
b [70]. Conversely, Smad7 may
also mediate the antiinflammatory
activity of TGF-b in other situations by inhibiting NF-kB signaling upon activation by inflammatory cytokines like
interleukine 1 or TNF-
a. Smad7 has also been shown to
disrupt the TRAF6
TAK1 TAB2/3 signaling
complex or to induce the expression
of IkB, which induces the
degradation of NF-
kB subunits by the proteasomal
pathway, therefore resulting in
inhibition of NF-kB signaling. In
addition, Smad7 has
been shown to be a key
negative regulator of the renal
inflammatory response
[62,68,71,72]. These results
suggest that Smad7 may
have both anti-fibrotic and antiinflammatory
functions.

TGF-b has anti-proliferative effects in epithelial cells. However, it can also promote tumorigenesis by modulating processes such as cell invasion, metastasis, immune regulation, and microenvironment modification that cancer cells may
exploit for their own good [2]. Smad7
has been shown to play
a role in these processes. A
genome-wide
association study showed that common
alleles of Smad7
influenced the risk of colorectal cancer
[73]. As a key
negative regulator of TGF-
b signaling, Smad7 has been reported to inhibit the formation of osteolytic metastases by human breast cancer and melanoma when overexpressed [7476]. In addition, it
also
inhibits endometrial carcinomas, thyroid follicular tumors, and hepatocellular carcinomas [7779]. Azuma et al. [80] reported that
overexpression of Smad

 

Conclusions

 

TGF-b is a cytokine of crucial importance that regulates diverse cellular and
physiological processes, such as cell
proliferation,
differentiation, apoptosis, adhesion, and
migration. To maintain
the cellular or/and organic
homeostasis, the TGF-b signaling pathway is
precisely
regulated at different levels. Dysfunction or deregulation of TGF-b signaling has been associated with
different
human diseases, such as fibrosis, inflammatory diseases, and tumorigenesis. Smad7 regulates TGF-b signaling via a negative feedback loop and mediates the crosstalk between TGF-b and other signaling pathways. Smad7 also plays an important role in pathological processes and has both anti-fibrotic and anti-inflammatory activities, suggesting that overexpression of Smad7 may have therapeutic potential
to treat fibrosis and inflammation.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to
apologize to the investigators whose
outstanding work was
not cited here because of space
limitation. The
authors would also like to thank
Mr Martin Ting Ma for
assisting in manuscript
preparation.

 

Funding

 

This work was supported by the grants from the National Natural
Science Foundation of China
(30430360, 30671033,
and 30600096), the Major State
Basic Research
Development Program of China
(2004CB720002,
2006CB943401, and 2006CB910102),
and the National High
Technology Research and
Development Program of
China (2006AA02Z172).

 

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