Lamin A and Prelamin a Counteract Migration of Osteosarcoma Cells

• Main Authors: Camilla Evangelisti, Francesca Paganelli, Gaia Giuntini, Elisabetta Mattioli, Alessandra Cappellini, Giulia Ramazzotti, Irene Faenza, Maria Cristina Maltarello, Alberto M. Martelli, Katia Scotlandi, Francesca Chiarini, Giovanna Lattanzi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-03-01
• Series: Cells
• Subjects: osteosarcoma; lamin a; cellular migration; <i>lmna</i> gene; osteoblast differentiation
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/9/3/774

A type lamins are fundamental components of the nuclear lamina. Changes in lamin A expression correlate with malignant transformation in several cancers. However, the role of lamin A has not been explored in osteosarcoma (OS). Here, we wanted to investigate the role of lamin A in normal osteoblasts (OBs) and OS cells. Thus, we studied the expression of lamin A/C in OS cells compared to OBs and evaluated the effects of lamin A overexpression in OS cell lines. We show that, while lamin A expression increases during osteoblast differentiation, all examined OS cell lines express lower lamin A levels relative to differentiated OBs. The condition of low <i>LMNA</i> expression confers to OS cells a significant increase in migration potential, while overexpression of lamin A reduces migration ability of OS cells. Moreover, overexpression of unprocessable prelamin A also reduces cell migration. In agreement with the latter finding, OS cells which accumulate the highest prelamin A levels upon inhibition of lamin A maturation by statins, had significantly reduced migration ability. Importantly, OS cells subjected to statin treatment underwent apoptotic cell death in a RAS-independent, lamin A-dependent manner. Our results show that pro-apoptotic effects of statins and statin inhibitory effect on OS cell migration are comparable to those obtained by prelamin A accumulation and further suggest that modulation of lamin A expression and post-translational processing can be a tool to decrease migration potential in OS cells.