Inhibin subunit beta A promotes cell proliferation and metastasis of breast cancer through Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway

Emerging evidence has demonstrated that inhibin subunit beta A (INHBA) is dysregulated and plays a critical role in various cancers. With the development of sequencing technology, studies have discovered that INHBA is overexpressed in breast cancer tissues. However, the biological roles of INHBA in breast cancer are still far to clear. In the present study, we analyzed the INHBA expression in the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was conducted to assess the expression of INHBA in breast cancer cell lines. Cell proliferation, invasion and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT) were determined by using CCK-8, EdU, Transwell and western blot assays. The result showed that INHBA was highly expressed in breast cancer cell lines. Functional analysis revealed that silence or elevation of INHBA inhibited or promoted the proliferation, migration, invasion and EMT and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway-related markers of MCF-7 cells. Mechanically, blocking of Wnt/β-catenin pathway by XAV939 reversed the promotion effect of INHBA overexpression on breast cancer cells’ proliferation, migration and invasion. Our findings emphasized that INHBA may act as an oncogene via activating the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, which may provide a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of breast cancer.