Abstract
Migration of bladder cancer (BC) cells poses a substantial threat to human health. It is critical to elucidate the mechanism of BC invasion and progression for surgical treatment and the prognosis of patients. Decorin is of interest as an anticancer treatment that can play a vital role in regulating tumorigenesis. The effect of decorin expression on survival in clinical patients was screened and analyzed using bladder urothelial carcinoma data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database. The differential expression of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) in tumors was compared against that of normal samples to analyze the correlation between them. MTT, flow cytometry, and Wound/Transwell assays were used to detect cell proliferation, cycle arrest, apoptosis, migration, and invasion. Analysis of TCGA data showed that decorin expression was significantly lower in bladder urothelial carcinoma samples than in normal tissues, while TGF-β1 expression did not change significantly. We found that decorin was correlated with TGF-β1 expression in bladder urothelial cancer. In addition, decorin blocked the G1/S phase by upregulating p21 protein and inhibiting the expression of TGF-β1 and MMP2, promoting the occurrence of apoptosis and inhibiting the proliferation of human BC T24 cells. Moreover, decorin increased the adhesion of tumor cells in vitro, and effectively inhibited cell metastasis. Decorin regulated the expression of TGF-β1 and MMP2 through p21 protein, promoted apoptosis and adhesion, and inhibited the proliferation and metastasis of BC cells.