Methylation-mediated loss of SFRP2 enhances melanoma cell invasion via Wnt signaling.

Wnt signaling plays an essential role in the initiation and progression of melanoma tumors. The Secreted Frizzled Related Proteins (SFRPs) are a family of proteins that suppress Wnt signaling. The methylation of SFRPs reduces their activity, and hence augments Wnt signaling. However, whether the methylation of SFRP2, a member of SFRPs, may be involved in the pathogenesis of melanoma is not known. Here we investigated the expression levels of SFRP2 in melanoma specimens. We found that SFRP2 mRNA wassignificantly decreased and methylation of SFRP2 gene was significantly increased in malignant melanoma tumors ascompared to the paired adjacent non-tumor tissue. Moreover, SFRP2 expression was significantly decreased in the malignant melanoma celllines, HTB63, A2058 and A375, but not in the non-transformed melanocyte cell line, Hermes 3A. The demethylation of SFRP2 gene by 5'-aza-deoxycytidine (5-aza-dCyd) in melanoma cell lines restored SFRP2 expression, at both mRNA and protein levels, and suppressed cell invasion. Furthermore, the demethylation of SFRP2 geneappeared to inhibit nuclear retention of a key Wnt signaling factor, β-catenin, in melanoma cell lines. Together, these data suggest that SFRP2may function as a melanoma invasion suppressor byinterfering with Wnt signaling, and the methylation of SFRP2 gene may promote pathogenesis of melanoma.