N-cadherin: a cell adhesion molecule in neural development

Quantitative proteome analysis of pluripotent cells by iTRAQ mass tagging reveals post-transcriptional regulation of proteins required for ES cell self-renewal

Embryonic stem cells and embryonal carcinoma cells share two key characteristics: pluripotency (the ability to differentiate into endoderm, ectoderm, and mesoderm) and self-renewal (the ability to grow without change in an untransformed, euploid state). Much has been done to identify and characterize transcription factors that are necessary or sufficient to maintain these characteristics. Oct-4 and Nanog are necessary to maintain pluripotency; they are down-regulated at the mRNA level by differentiation. There may be additional regulatory genes whose mRNA levels are unchanged but whose proteins are destabilized during differentiation. We generated proteome-wide, quantitative profiles of ES and embryonal carcinoma cells during differentiation, replicating a microarray-based study by Aiba et al. (Aiba, K., Sharov, A. A., Carter, M. G., Foroni, C., Vescovi, A. L., and Ko, M. S. (2006) Defining a developmental path to neural fate by global expression profiling of mouse embryonic stem cells and adult neural stem/progenitor cells. Stem Cells 24, 889-895) who triggered differentiation by treatment with 1 μM all-trans-retinoic acid. We identified several proteins whose levels decreased during differentiation in both cell types but whose mRNA levels were unchanged. We confirmed several of these cases by RT-PCR and Western blot. Racgap1 (also known as mgcRacgap) was particularly interesting because it is required for viability of preimplantation embryos and hematopoietic stem cells, and it is also required for differentiation. To confirm our observation that RACGAP-1 declines during retinoic acid-mediated differentiation, we used multiple reaction monitoring, a targeted mass spectrometry-based quantitation method, and determined that RACGAP-1 levels decline by half during retinoic acid-mediated differentiation. We knocked down Racgap-1 mRNA levels using a panel of five shRNAs. This resulted in a loss of self-renewal that correlated with the level of knockdown. We conclude that RACGAP-1 is post-transcriptionally regulated during blastocyst development to enable differentiation by inhibiting ES cell self-renewal.

Glycoproteins and lectins in cell adhesion and cell recognition processes

The discovery of endogenous lectins having specific and high affinity for the carbohydrate portions of glycoproteins has opened up new directions in the field of cell adhesion and cell recognition. Two endogenous lectins, termed as CSL and R1, initially isolated from the rat cerebellum and having a wide distribution in mammalian tissues, have been shown to participate in essential mechanisms of cell adhesion. The membrane-bound lectin R1 seems to be involved in transient recognition between neuronal cells, followed by elimination of the glycoprotein ligands at the surface of the recognized cell. In contrast, CSL is a molecule involved in adhesion between various normal or transformed cells since it participates in the formation of tight junctions. The glycoprotein ligands recognized with higher affinity by these two lectins seem to possess a special structure which defines a sub-class of oncofetal HNK-1 glycans. The over-expression of the glycoprotein ligands of these lectins in most transformed cells provides new tools for understanding the underlying mechanism of malignant transformation as well as the generation of signals through cell adhesion.

Identification of a 58-kDa antigen with increased immunoreactivity in the cerebella of multiple sclerosis patients

An increase in immunoreactivity associated with a 58-kDa antigen was found in a majority of MS cerebellar homogenates examined by Western blot analysis using antisera obtained by selective immunization of rabbits with autopsy cerebella. Two-dimensional immunoblotting demonstrated that the majority of the increased immunoreactivity observed in MS cerebella was associated with the highest apparent pI of three immunoreactive species at 58 kDa. Immuno-crossreaction with rat cerebellar homogenates demonstrated that the 58-kDa antigen was developmentally regulated, showing the greatest immunoreactivity at embryonic day 15. The 58-kDa cerebellar antigen may represent a membrane protein which is re-expressed as part of the onset of MS.

Developmental expression of neural cell adhesion molecules in the mouse neocortex and olfactory bulb

Polyclonal antibodies to N-CAM and L1 and monoclonal antibodies to epitopes of N-CAM (designated 12F11, 8A2, and 12F8) were used to investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of these neural cell adhesion molecules during the development of mouse cortex and olfactory bulb. The aim of the study was to correlate developmental events such as cell migration, dendritic and axonal outgrowth, and synaptogenesis with the appearance and disappearance of specific molecules involved in cell-cell interactions. Western transfer studies indicated that 12F8 antibody recognized polysialic acid found on embryonic N-CAM; 8A2 antibody primarily recognized the 140 kD component of N-CAM while the 12F11 antibody recognized the 180 and the 140 kD forms. The study demonstrates a high degree of cell surface molecular specialization of different compartments in developing neocortex and olfactory bulb. L1 is found on a variety of unmyelinated fiber tracts including thalamocortical fibers, olfactory nerve, and inner plexiform layer of the olfactory bulb. In contrast, N-CAM epitope recognized by 12F11 antibody is present on olfactory nerve fibers but appears later and is much weaker than L1 on thalamocortical fibers and is absent from the olfactory lobe inner plexiform layer. Dendritic regions are best labeled by 12F8 antibody; the epitope becomes faint in adult cortex but remains strongly expressed in olfactory bulb. This study reveals that widespread N-CAM expression in the central nervous system is constituted by a diversity of local expression of different molecular forms of N-CAM; their different anatomical distributions suggest they may each have unique roles.