BMP2 response pattern in human lung fibroblasts predicts outcome in lung adenocarcinomas

BACKGROUND: Bone morphogenetic proteins play important roles in development, morphogenesis and cancer. With this study we aimed to characterize the response of lung stromal fibroblasts to BMPs and their antagonists on a genome wide level and investigate its potential role in human lung adenocarcinomas. METHODS: We used an ex vivo culture model and measured gene expression changes in human lung fibroblasts after stimulation with BMPs and their antagonists using HEEBO microarrays. The in vitro data were correlated with in vivo observations in published expression datasets of human lung adenocarcinomas. RESULTS: We have systematically analyzed the response to BMP2, BMP4, BMP7 and their antagonists, Gremlin and Noggin, to define common and specific gene expression patterns. A BMP2 induced gene expression signature was defined, which is specific for stromal fibroblasts. Gene expression profiles from lung adenocarcinoma biopsies were analyzed to determine the prognostic significance of the “Fibroblast specific BMP2 induced gene list”. This gene list successfully segregated patients with different prognostic outcome in 3 datasets. In a small dataset (Garber et al.) there was a strong trend for a worse prognosis of patients with adenocarcinomas of all stages over-expressing the “Fibroblast specific BMP2 induced gene list”. In two larger datasets with stage I adenocarcinomas we observed a significantly worse disease-free (p = 0.002, Lee et al. and p = 0.002, Bhattacharjee et al.) and overall survival (p = 0.0002). CONCLUSIONS: The effects of BMPs and their antagonists are heterogeneous in different cell types. The gene expression pattern induced by BMP2 in primary lung fibroblasts may predict outcomes of patients with lung adenocarcinomas. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12920-015-0090-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.