p34cdc2-mediated phosphorylation mobilizes microtubule-organizing centers from the apical intermediate filament scaffold in CACO-2 epithelial cells

Intermediate filaments: a role in epithelial polarity

Intermediate filaments have long been considered mechanical components of the cell that provide resistance to deformation stress. Practical experimental problems, including insolubility, lack of good pharmacological antagonists, and the paucity of powerful genetic models have handicapped the research of other functions. In single-layered epithelial cells, keratin intermediate filaments are cortical, either apically polarized or apico-lateral. This review analyzes phenotypes of genetic manipulations of simple epithelial cell keratins in mice and Caenorhabditis elegans that strongly suggest a role of keratins in apico-basal polarization and membrane traffic. Published evidence that intermediate filaments can act as scaffolds for proteins involved in membrane traffic and signaling is also discussed. Such a scaffolding function would generate a highly polarized compartment within the cytoplasm of simple epithelial cells. While in most cases mechanistic explanations for the keratin-null or overexpression phenotypes are still missing, it is hoped that investigators will be encouraged to study these as yet poorly understood functions of intermediate filaments.

GCP6 binds to intermediate filaments: a novel function of keratins in the organization of microtubules in epithelial cells

In simple epithelial cells, attachment of microtubule-organizing centers (MTOCs) to intermediate filaments (IFs) enables their localization to the apical domain. It is released by cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk)1 phosphorylation. Here, we identified a component of the gamma-tubulin ring complex, gamma-tubulin complex protein (GCP)6, as a keratin partner in yeast two-hybrid assays. This was validated by binding in vitro of both purified full-length HIS-tagged GCP6 and a GCP6(1397-1819) fragment to keratins, and pull-down with native IFs. Keratin binding was blocked by Cdk1-mediated phosphorylation of GCP6. GCP6 was apical in normal enterocytes but diffuse in K8-null cells. GCP6 knockdown with short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) in CACO-2 cells resulted in gamma-tubulin signal scattered throughout the cytoplasm, microtubules (MTs) in the perinuclear and basal regions, and microtubule-nucleating activity localized deep in the cytoplasm. Expression of a small fragment GCP6(1397-1513) that competes binding to keratins in vitro displaced gamma-tubulin from the cytoskeleton and resulted in depolarization of gamma-tubulin and changes in the distribution of microtubules and microtubule nucleation sites. Expression of a full-length S1397D mutant in the Cdk1 phosphorylation site delocalized centrosomes. We conclude that GCP6 participates in the attachment of MTOCs to IFs in epithelial cells and is among the factors that determine the peculiar architecture of microtubules in polarized epithelia.

Intermediate filaments interact with dormant ezrin in intestinal epithelial cells

Ezrin connects the apical F-actin scaffold to membrane proteins in the apical brush border of intestinal epithelial cells. Yet, the mechanisms that recruit ezrin to the apical domain remain obscure. Using stable CACO-2 transfectants expressing keratin 8 (K8) antisense RNA under a tetracycline-responsive element, we showed that the actin-ezrin scaffold cannot assemble in the absence of intermediate filaments (IFs). Overexpression of ezrin partially rescued this phenotype. Overexpression of K8 in mice also disrupted the assembly of the brush border, but ezrin distributed away from the apical membrane in spots along supernumerary IFs. In cytochalasin D-treated cells ezrin localized to a subapical compartment and coimmunoprecipitated with IFs. Overexpression of ezrin in undifferentiated cells showed a Triton-insoluble ezrin compartment negative for phospho-T567 (dormant) ezrin visualized as spots along IFs. Pulse-chase analysis showed that Triton-insoluble, newly synthesized ezrin transiently coimmunoprecipitates with IFs during the first 30 min of the chase. Dormant, but not active (p-T567), ezrin bound in vitro to isolated denatured keratins in Far-Western analysis and to native IFs in pull-down assays. We conclude that a transient association to IFs is an early step in the polarized assembly of apical ezrin in intestinal epithelial cells.

Membrane repolarization is delayed in proximal tubules after ischemia-reperfusion: possible role of microtubule-organizing centers

We have previously shown that microtubule-organizing centers (MTOCs) attach to the apical network of intermediate filaments (IFs) in epithelial cells in culture and in epithelia in vivo. Because that attachment is important for the architecture of microtubules (MTs) in epithelia, we analyzed whether chemical anoxia in LLC-PK1 and CACO-2 cells or unilateral ischemia-reperfusion in rat kidney (performed under fluorane anesthesia) had an effect on the binding and distribution of MTOCs. In culture, we found that chemical anoxia induces MTOC detachment from IFs by morphological and biochemical criteria. In reperfused rat proximal tubules, noncentrosomal MTOCs were fully detached from the cytoskeleton and scattered throughout the cytoplasm at 3 days after reperfusion, when brush borders were mostly reassembled. At that time, MTs were also fully reassembled but, as expected, lacked their normal apicobasal orientation. Two apical membrane markers expressed in S2 and S3 segments were depolarized at the same stage. At 8 days after reperfusion, membrane polarity, MTOCs, and MTs were back to normal. Na+-K+-ATPase was also found redistributed, not to the apical domain but rather to an intracellular compartment, as described by others (Alejandro VS, Nelson W, Huie P, Sibley RK, Dafoe D, Kuo P, Scandling JD Jr., and Myers BD. Kidney Int 48: 1308-1315, 1995). The prolonged depolarization of the apical membrane may have implications in the pathophysiology of acute renal failure.