The TGF-β/SMAD pathway upregulates SRC

The non-receptor tyrosine kinase SRC is upregulated in various human cancers and plays crucial roles in cancer progression by promoting invasion and metastasis. We show that the transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β/SMAD pathway directly upregulates SRC during the epithelial-mesenchymal transition. In human epithelial MCF10A cells, TGF-β1 treatment markedly upregulated mRNA expression of SRC. Knockout of SMAD4 suppressed upregulation of SRC by TGF-β1. ChIP-sequencing analysis revealed that SRC was transcribed from the SRC1A promoter, which interacted with SMAD2 and SMAD4, in response to TGF-β1. These findings demonstrate that a direct interaction of the activated SMAD complex with the SRC1A promoter directly upregulates SRC and suggest that TGF-β contributes to SRC upregulation in the tumor microenvironment, where TGF-β-mediated tumor progression takes place. MCF10A cells were treated with or without TGF-β1 (10 ng/ml) for 48 h. Fixed lysates were subjected to ChIP using an anti-RNA polymerase II antibody