TET1-mediated DNA hydroxymethylation activates inhibitors of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway to suppress EMT in pancreatic tumor cells

BACKGROUND: Ten-eleven translocation 1 (TET1) is a dioxygenase that converts 5-methylcytosine (5-mC) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5-hmC) to induce DNA demethylation. TET1 has been reported to be absent in cancers, and to influence various oncogenes and anti-oncogenes. However the function of TET1 in pancreatic tumor remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the role of TET1 in the progression of pancreatic tumor and its mechanism of tumor suppression. METHODS: Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), immunohistochemical (IHC) staining and dot blot were performed to detect the TET1 and 5-hmC expression in pancreatic tumor tissues and its adjacent non-tumor tissues. The clinical parameters significance of pancreatic tumor tissues was determined statistically. TET1 over-expression and knock-out cell lines were built and confirmed in vitro. Cell proliferation assay, wound-healing assays, transwell migration assay and nude mice model of orthotopic pancreatic cancer implantation were performed to assess the function of TET1 in pancreatic tumor. Western blot, qRT-PCR, immunofluorescence (IF), bisulfate sequencing (BSP), Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) were used to uncover the mechanism. RESULTS: TET1 levels and 5-hmC content were downregulated in pancreatic tumor tissues and cell lines, and pancreatic tumor patients with low TET1 levels had a shorter overall survival than patients with high levels of TET1. TET1 suppressed pancreatic tumor proliferation and metastasis in vivo and in vitro. TET1 bound to the secreted frizzled-related protein 2 (SFRP2) promoter and catalyzed demethylation to activate transcription of SFRP2, inhibiting both the canonical and non-canonical Wnt signaling pathways, and ultimately obstructing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in pancreatic tumors. CONCLUSION: We found TET1 plays as a suppressor in pancreatic tumor progression via obstructing Wnt signaling pathways. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13046-019-1334-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.