The role of
protein l-isoaspartate (d-aspartate) O-methyltransferase (PCMT1) in human
cancer was generally cognized. The clinical significance and
biological function of PCMT1 in
bladder cancer is still unknown. PCMT1
mRNA and
protein expression levels in
bladder cancer tissues and cell lines were detected by qRT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, or western blot. The correlation between PCMT1 expression and clinicopathological factors was analyzed through immunohistochemistry in 108
bladder cancer patients. Loss-of-function and gain-of-function studies were conducted to explore the
biological function of PCMT1 in
bladder cancer cell lines in regulating cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. In our results, we found that PCMT1 was overexpressed in
bladder cancer tissues compared with normal urothelium tissues in microarray datasets (GSE3167). Then, we confirmed PCMT1
mRNA and
protein expression were increased in
bladder cancer tissues and cell lines compared with paired normal urothelium tissues and normal uroepithelial cell line. PCMT1
protein expression was obviously correlated with clinical stage, muscularis invasion,
lymph node metastasis, and distant
metastasis. Survival analysis showed that PCMT1
protein high-expression was an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for
bladder cancer patients. The in vitro experiments showed PCMT1 regulated
bladder cancer cells migration and invasion through modulating epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT)-associated genes expression including
E-cadherin,
vimentin, Snail and Slug, but had no effect on proliferation. In conclusion, PCMT1 is an unfavorable prognostic
biomarker and involves in cells migration and invasion through regulating EMT-associated genes. © 2018 IUBMB Life, 70(4):291-299, 2018.