PLC-β2 is modulated by low oxygen availability in breast tumor cells and plays a phenotype dependent role in their hypoxia-related malignant potential.

Limited oxygen availability plays a critical role in the malignant progression of breast cancer by orchestrating a complex modulation of the gene transcription largely dependent on the tumor phenotype. Invasive breast tumors belonging to different molecular subtypes are characterized by over-expression of PLC-β2, whose amount positively correlates with the malignant evolution of breast neoplasia and supports the invasive potential of breast tumor cells. Here we report that hypoxia modulates the expression of PLC-β2 in breast tumor cells in a phenotype-related manner, since a decrease of the protein was observed in the BT-474 and MCF7 cell lines while an increase was revealed in MDA-MB-231 cells as a consequence of low oxygen availability. Under hypoxia, the down-modulation of PLC-β2 was mainly correlated with the decrease of the EMT marker E-cadherin in the BT-474 cells and with the up-regulation of the stem cell marker CD133 in MCF7 cells. The increase of PLC-β2 induced by low oxygen in MDA-MB-231 cells supports the hypoxia-related reorganization of actin cytoskeleton and sustains invasion capability. In all examined cell lines, but with an opposite role in the ER-positive and ER-negative cells, PLC-β2 was involved in the hypoxia-induced increase of HIF-1α, known to affect both EMT and CD133 expression. Our data include PLC-β2 in the complex and interconnected signaling pathways induced by low oxygen availability in breast tumor cells and suggest that the forced modulation of PLC-β2 programmed on the basis of tumor phenotype may prevent the malignant progression of breast neoplasia as a consequence of intra-tumoral hypoxia.