Integrin beta(1A) upregulates p27 protein amount at the post-translational level in human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line SMMC-7721

JNK inhibition arrests cotranslational degradation

Adhesion to fibronectin stimulates protein synthesis (translation) of fibroblasts. Protein synthesis stimulation is dependent from the activation of beta(1)-integrin. beta(1)-Integrin elicits a PI3K cascade that modulates eIF4F (eukaryotic initiation factor 4F) complex formation. In the attempt to further dissect elements of the PI3K cascade that might be responsible for fibronectin-stimulated translation, we used pharmacological inhibitors of known kinases. We found that JNK inhibition, by SP600125 treatment, increased (35)S-methionine incorporation. Paradoxically, the increase in methionine incorporation was associated to a reduction of initiation of translation. These data imply that, during the adhesion of fibroblasts to fibronectin, conspicuous protein degradation occurs. Indeed, we found that inhibition of the proteasome by MG132 also increased methionine incorporation. Cotranslational degradation depended on PI3K activation. In spite of this, serum promoted translation, but not cotranslational degradation. The crosstalk between translation and degradation was further analyzed by studying the phosphorylation of initiation factors. Briefly, inhibition of JNK leads to eIF2alpha phosphorylation, which may account for the decrease in initiation of translation. In conclusion, beta(1)-integrin-activated translation causes the synthesis of short-lived proteins, whose degradation is controlled by the JNK pathway. We hypothesize that JNK is a general regulator of cotranslational degradation.

SKP2 siRNA inhibits the degradation of P27kip1 and down-regulates the expression of MRP in HL-60/A cells

S-phase kinase-associated protein 2 (SKP2) gene is a tumor suppressor gene, and is involved in the ubiquitin-mediated degradation of P27kip1. SKP2 and P27kip1 affect the proceeding and prognosis of leukemia through regulating the proliferation, apoptosis and differentiation of leukemia cells. In this study, we explored the mechanism of reversing of HL-60/A drug resistance through SKP2 down-regulation. HL-60/A cells were nucleofected by Amaxa Nucleofector System with SKP2 siRNA. The gene and protein expression levels of Skp2, P27kip1, and multi-drug resistance associated protein (MRP) were determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blot analysis, respectively. The cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. The 50% inhibitory concentration value was calculated using cytotoxic analysis according to the death rate of these two kinds of cells under different concentrations of chemotherapeutics to compare the sensitivity of the cells. HL-60/A cells showed multi-drug resistance phenotype characteristic by cross-resistance to adriamycin, daunorubicin, and arabinosylcytosine, due to the expression of MRP. We found that the expression of SKP2 was higher in HL-60/A cells than in HL-60 cells, but the expression of P27kip1 was lower. The expression of SKP2 in HL-60/A cells nucleofected by SKP2 siRNA was down-regulated whereas the protein level of P27kip1 was up-regulated. Compared with the MRP expression level in the control group (nucleofected by control siRNA), the mRNA and protein expression levels of MRP in HL-60/A cells nucleofected by SKP2 siRNA were lower, and the latter cells were more sensitive to adriamycin, daunorubicin, and arabinosylcytosine. Down-regulating the SKP2 expression and arresting cells in the G0/G1 phase improve drug sensitivity of leukemia cells with down-regulated MRP expression.

Cloning, expression, and polymorphism of the porcine calpain10 gene

Calpains are calcium-regulated proteases involved in cellular functions that include muscle proteolysis both ante- and post-mortem. This study was designed to clone the complete coding sequence of the porcine calpain10 gene, CAPN10, to analyze its expression characteristics and to investigate its polymorphism. Two isoforms of the CAPN10 gene, CAPN10A and CAPN10B, were obtained by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and rapid amplification of cDNA ends methods combined with in silico cloning. RT-PCR results indicated that CAPN10 mRNA was ubiquitously expressed in all tissues examined and, with increasing age, the expression level increased in muscles at six different growth points. In the same tissues, the expression level of CAPN10A was higher than that of CAPN10B. In addition, three single nucleotide polymorphisms were detected by the PCR-single-stranded conformational polymorphism method and by comparing the sequences of Chinese Min pigs with those of Yorkshire pigs. C527T mutation was a missense mutation and led to transforming Pro into Leu at the 176 th amino acid. The results of the current study provided basic molecular information for further study of the function of the porcine CAPN10 gene.