Bone morphogenetic protein 2 induces the activation of WNT/β-catenin signaling and human trophoblast invasion through up-regulating BAMBI

Both bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) and WNT/beta-catenin signaling promote human trophoblast cell invasion. BMP2 has been shown to up-regulate bone morphogenetic protein and activin membrane-bound inhibitor (BAMBI) in granulosa cells. Besides, studies indicate BAMBI is a positive regulator for WNT/beta-catenin signaling. However, whether BMP2 can increase BAMBI expression to induce WNT/beta-catenin signaling for trophoblast cell invasion is still unknown. To study the roles of BAMBI in BMP2-induced activation of WNT/beta-catenin signaling and human trophoblast invasion, we used immortalized human extravillous trophoblast (EVT) cell line (HTR8/SVneo) and primary human EVT cells as study models. Messenger RNA and protein levels of target genes were checked with RT-qPCR and Western blot assay respectively. The function of target proteins was studied via small interfering RNA (siRNA)-mediated knockdown. In addition, trophoblast cell invasiveness was examined by matrigel-coated transwell assays. Our results demonstrate that BMP2 treatment increased BAMBI mRNA levels and the activation of WNT/beta-catenin signaling including the raised phosphorylation of GSK3 beta, the up-regulation of active (non-phosphorylated) beta-catenin as well as its downstream target molecule cyclin D1, all of which were totally blocked by the activin receptor-like kinases (ALK) 2/3 inhibitor DMH1 or siRNA-mediated knockdown of BAMBI in HTR8/SVneo cells. Consistently, in primary human EVT cells, BMP2 also induced the up-regulation of BAMBI and the activation of WNT/beta-catenin signaling indicated by the increased levels of active beta-catenin and cyclin D1, which were completely blocked by BAMBI knockdown. In conclusion, BMP2 promotes the activation of canonical WNT/beta-catenin signaling and human trophoblast cell invasion by up-regulating BAMBI.