Elevated expression of pp60c-src alters a selective morphogenetic property of epithelial cells in vitro without a mitogenic effect

Scribble modulates the MAPK/Fra1 pathway to disrupt luminal and ductal integrity and suppress tumour formation in the mammary gland

Polarity coordinates cell movement, differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis to build and maintain complex epithelial tissues such as the mammary gland. Loss of polarity and the deregulation of these processes are critical events in malignant progression but precisely how and at which stage polarity loss impacts on mammary development and tumourigenesis is unclear. Scrib is a core polarity regulator and tumour suppressor gene however to date our understanding of Scrib function in the mammary gland has been limited to cell culture and transplantation studies of cell lines. Utilizing a conditional mouse model of Scrib loss we report for the first time that Scrib is essential for mammary duct morphogenesis, mammary progenitor cell fate and maintenance, and we demonstrate a critical and specific role for Scribble in the control of the early steps of breast cancer progression. In particular, Scrib-deficiency significantly induced Fra1 expression and basal progenitor clonogenicity, which resulted in fully penetrant ductal hyperplasia characterized by high cell turnover, MAPK hyperactivity, frank polarity loss with mixing of apical and basolateral membrane constituents and expansion of atypical luminal cells. We also show for the first time a role for Scribble in mammalian spindle orientation with the onset of mammary hyperplasia being associated with aberrant luminal cell spindle orientation and a failure to apoptose during the final stage of duct tubulogenesis. Restoring MAPK/Fra1 to baseline levels prevented Scrib-hyperplasia, whereas persistent Scrib deficiency induced alveolar hyperplasia and increased the incidence, onset and grade of mammary tumours. These findings, based on a definitive genetic mouse model provide fundamental insights into mammary duct maturation and homeostasis and reveal that Scrib loss activates a MAPK/Fra1 pathway that alters mammary progenitor activity to drive premalignancy and accelerate tumour progression.

The role of MAPK in drug-induced kidney injury

This paper focuses on the role that mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) play in drug-induced kidney injury. The MAPKs, of which there are four major classes (ERK, p38, JNK, and ERK5/BMK), are signalling cascades which have been found to be broadly conserved across a wide variety of organisms. MAPKs allow effective transmission of information from the cell surface to the cytosolic or nuclear compartments. Cross talk between the MAPKs themselves and with other signalling pathways allows the cell to modulate responses to a wide variety of external stimuli. The MAPKs have been shown to play key roles in both mediating and ameliorating cellular responses to stress including xenobiotic-induced toxicity. Therefore, this paper will discuss the specific role of the MAPKs in the kidney in response to injury by a variety of xenobiotics and the potential for therapeutic intervention at the level of MAPK signalling across different types of kidney disease.

Tissue organization by cadherin adhesion molecules: dynamic molecular and cellular mechanisms of morphogenetic regulation

This review addresses the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cadherin-based tissue morphogenesis. Tissue physiology is profoundly influenced by the distinctive organizations of cells in organs and tissues. In metazoa, adhesion receptors of the classical cadherin family play important roles in establishing and maintaining such tissue organization. Indeed, it is apparent that cadherins participate in a range of morphogenetic events that range from support of tissue integrity to dynamic cellular rearrangements. A comprehensive understanding of cadherin-based morphogenesis must then define the molecular and cellular mechanisms that support these distinct cadherin biologies. Here we focus on four key mechanistic elements: the molecular basis for adhesion through cadherin ectodomains, the regulation of cadherin expression at the cell surface, cooperation between cadherins and the actin cytoskeleton, and regulation by cell signaling. We discuss current progress and outline issues for further research in these fields.

1,25 dihydroxyvitamin D3 stimulates phospholipase C-gamma in rat colonocytes: role of c-Src in PLC-gamma activation

Our laboratory has previously demonstrated that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25[OH]2D3) rapidly stimulated polyphosphoinositide (PI) hydrolysis, raised intracellular Ca2+, and activated two Ca2+-dependent protein kinase C (PKC) isoforms, PKC-alpha and -betaII in the rat large intestine. We also showed that the direct addition of 1,25(OH)2D3 to isolated colonic membranes failed to stimulate PI hydrolysis, but required secosteroid treatment of intact colonocytes, suggesting the involvement of a soluble factor. Furthermore, this PI hydrolysis was restricted to the basal lateral plasma membrane of these cells. In the present studies, therefore, we examined whether polyphosphoinositide-phospholipase C-gamma (PI-PLC-gamma), a predominantly cytosolic isoform of PI-PLC, was involved in the hydrolysis of colonic membrane PI by 1,25(OH)2D3. This isoform has been shown to be activated and membrane-associated by tyrosine phosphorylation. We found that 1,25(OH)2D3 caused a significant increase in the biochemical activity, particulate association, and the tyrosine phosphorylation of PLC-gamma, specifically in the basal lateral membranes. This secosteroid also induced a twofold increase in the activity of Src, a proximate activator of PLC-gamma in other cells, with peaks at 1 and 9 min in association with Src tyrosine dephosphorylation. 1,25(OH)2D3 also increased the physical association of activated c-Src with PLC-gamma. In addition, Src isolated from colonocytes treated with 1,25(OH)2D3, demonstrated an increased ability to phosphorylate exogenous PLC-gamma in vitro. Inhibition of 1,25(OH)2D3-induced Src activation by PP1, a specific Src family protein tyrosine kinase inhibitor, blocked the ability of this secosteroid to stimulate the translocation and tyrosine phosphorylation of PLC-gamma in the basolateral membrane (BLM). Src activation was lost in D deficiency, and was reversibly restored with the in vivo repletion of 1,25(OH)2D3. These studies demonstrate for the first time that 1,25(OH)2D3 stimulates PLC-gamma as well as c-Src in rat colonocytes, and indicate that PLC-gamma is a direct substrate of secosteroid-activated c-Src in these cells.

pp60c-src is a positive regulator of growth factor-induced cell scattering in a rat bladder carcinoma cell line

The NBT-II rat carcinoma cell line exhibits two mutually exclusive responses to FGF-1 and EGF, entering mitosis at cell confluency while undergoing an epithelium-to-mesenchyme transition (EMT) when cultured at subconfluency. EMT is characterized by acquisition of cell motility, modifications of cell morphology, and cell dissociation correlating with the loss of desmosomes from cellular cortex. The pleiotropic effects of EGF and FGF-1 on NBT-II cells suggest that multiple signaling pathways may be activated. We demonstrate here that growth factor activation is linked to at least two intracellular signaling pathways. One pathway leading to EMT involves an early and sustained stimulation of pp60c-src kinase activity, which is not observed during the growth factor-induced entry into the cell cycle. Overexpression of normal c-src causes a subpopulation of cells to undergo spontaneous EMT and sensitizes the rest of the population to the scattering activity of EGF and FGF-1 without affecting their mitogenic responsiveness. Addition of cholera toxin, a cAMP-elevating agent, severely perturbs growth factor induction of EMT without altering pp60c-src activation, therefore demonstrating that cAMP blockade takes place downstream or independently of pp60c-src. On the other hand, overexpression of a mutated, constitutively activated form of pp60c-src does not block cell dispersion while strongly inhibiting growth factor-induced entry into cell division. Moreover, stable transfection of a dominant negative mutant of c-src inhibits the scattering response without affecting mitogenesis induced by the growth factors. Altogether, these results suggest a role for pp60c-src in epithelial cell scattering and indicate that pp60c-src might contribute unequally to the two separate biological activities engendered by a single signal.

E-cadherin distribution in interleukin 6-induced cell-cell separation of ductal breast carcinoma cells

E-cadherin is expressed in both the ZR-75-1-Tx and the ZR-75-1-Ro sublines of ductal breast carcinoma cells and is concentrated at cell-cell borders as shown by immunocytochemical examination. Free cell borders generally show no or little staining. The localized decrease in E-cadherin expression observed after interleukin 6 (IL-6) treatment of either subline correlates with the increase in free cell borders as IL-6 causes cell-cell separation. As we previously reported, many IL-6-treated ZR-75-1-Tx cells round up and detach from the substratum while ZR-75-1-Ro cells remain adherent and display prominent processes. The results are consistent with the view that E-cadherin expression is not responsible for the marked difference in the IL-6-induced phenotypes in these cell lines, although the localized decrease may play a role in cell-cell separation. ZR-75-1-Tx cells are deficient in desmosomes and show a wider intercellular space than ZR-75-1-Ro cells. Alternative mechanisms involving different aspects of the interlinked cytoskeletal and cell adhesion structures are considered to account for the IL-6-induced antimorphogenetic effect.

Loss of epithelial differentiation and gain of invasiveness correlates with tyrosine phosphorylation of the E-cadherin/beta-catenin complex in cells transformed with a temperature-sensitive v-SRC gene

Loss of histotypic organization of epithelial cells is a common feature in normal development as well as in the invasion of carcinomas. Here we show that the v-src oncogene is a potent effector of epithelial differentiation and invasiveness. MDCK epithelial cells transformed with a temperature-sensitive mutant of v-src exhibit a strictly epithelial phenotype at the nonpermissive temperature for pp60v-src activity (40.5 degrees C) but rapidly loose cell-to-cell contacts and acquire a fibroblast-like morphology after culture at the permissive temperature (35 degrees C). Furthermore, the invasiveness of the cells into collagen gels or into chick heart fragments was increased at the permissive temperature. The profound effects of v-src on intercellular adhesion were not linked to changes in the levels of expression of the epithelial cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin. Rather, we observed an increase in tyrosine phosphorylation of E-cadherin and, in particular, of the associated protein beta-catenin. These results suggest a mechanism by which v-src counteracts junctional assembly and thereby promotes invasiveness and dedifferentiation of epithelial cells through phosphorylation of the E-cadherin/catenin complex.

Osteoclasts express high levels of pp60c-src in association with intracellular membranes

Deletion of the c-src gene in transgenic mice by homologous recombination leads to osteopetrosis, a skeletal defect characterized by markedly deficient bone resorption (Soriano, P., C. Montgomery, R. Geske, and A. Bradley. 1991. Cell. 64:693-702), demonstrating a critical functional role of pp60c-src in osteoclast activity. Since decreased bone resorption could result from a defect either within the osteoclast or within other cells present in its environment, indirectly affecting osteoclast functions, we determined which cell(s) in bone expressed high levels of pp60c-src Measuring pp60c-src protein and kinase activities in osteoclasts and immunolocalizing pp60c-src in bone, we find that expression of pp60c-src is nearly as high in osteoclasts as in brain and platelets. In contrast, other bone cells contain only very low levels of the protein. In addition, expression of the c-src gene product increases when bone marrow cells are induced to express an osteoclast-like phenotype by 1,25-dihydroxy-vitamin D3, further suggesting that high expression of pp60c-src is part of the osteoclast phenotype. Three other src-like kinases, c-fyn, c-yes, and c-lyn, are also expressed in osteoclasts at ratios to pp60c-src similar to what is found in platelets. These src-related proteins do not, however, compensate for the absence of pp60c-src in the src- mice, thereby suggesting that pp60c-src may have a specific function in osteoclasts. Although further work is necessary to elucidate what the critical role of pp60c-src in osteoclasts is, our observation that the protein is associated mostly with the membranes of intracellular organelles suggests the possibility that this role might be at least in part related to the targeting or fusion of membrane vesicles.

Increased tyrosine kinase activity of c-Src during calcium-induced keratinocyte differentiation

In cultured human epidermal keratinocytes, induction of differentiation by Ca2+ and ionophore treatment was found to result in rapid elevation of c-Src tyrosine kinase activity and inactivation of the c-Yes tyrosine kinase. Activation of c-Src kinase was accompanied by tyrosine dephosphorylation, which might be explained by a rapid increase in intracellular protein-tyrosine phosphatase activity. Ca(2+)-induced differentiation was also associated with altered tyrosine phosphorylation of several cellular proteins and correlated with a marked redistribution of intracellular phosphotyrosine from membrane and adhesion sites to the nucleus. Some of the c-Src protein was also found in the nucleus after Ca2+ treatment, and Ca(2+)-activated c-Src bound to three cellular proteins (120 kDa, 65 kDa, and 34 kDa). In agreement with these results, immunohistochemistry on human epidermis revealed an increase in c-Src expression and tyrosine phosphorylation in cells undergoing differentiation, which strongly suggests a possible role of non-receptor tyrosine kinases in epithelial cell maturation.

Autocrine angiotensin system regulation of bovine aortic endothelial cell migration and plasminogen activator involves modulation of proto-oncogene pp60c-src expression

Rapid endothelial cell migration and inhibition of thrombosis are critical for the resolution of denudation injuries to the vessel wall. Inhibition of the endothelial cell autocrine angiotensin system, with either the angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor lisinopril or the angiotensin II receptor antagonist sar1, ile8-angiotensin II, leads to increased endothelial cell migration and urokinase-like plasminogen activator (u-PA) activity (Bell, L., and J. A. Madri. 1990. Am. J. Pathol. 137:7-12). Inhibition of the autocrine angiotensin system with the converting-enzyme inhibitor or the receptor antagonist also leads to increased expression of the proto-oncogene c-src: pp60c-src mRNA increased 7-11-fold, c-src protein 3-fold, and c-src kinase activity 2-3-fold. Endothelial cell expression of c-src was constitutively elevated after stable infection with a retroviral vector containing the c-src coding sequence. Constitutively increased c-src kinase activity reconstituted the increases in migration and u-PA observed with angiotensin system interruption. Antisera to bovine u-PA blocked the increase in migration associated with increased c-src expression. These data suggest that increases in endothelial cell migration and plasminogen activator after angiotensin system inhibition are at least partially pp60c-src mediated. Elevated c-src expression with angiotensin system inhibition may act to enhance intimal wound closure and to reduce luminal thrombogenicity in vivo.

Immunolocalization of the cellular src protein in interphase and mitotic NIH c-src overexpresser cells

The mouse mAb, mAb 327, that recognizes specifically both pp60v-src and pp60c-src in a wide variety of cells, has been used to determine precisely the various locations of pp60c-src in NIH c-src overexpresser cells, using the technique of immunofluorescence microscopy. In interphase cells, the protein exhibits two main distributions: one that appears uniform and in association with the cell surface and the other that is patchy and juxtanuclear and coincides with the centrosomes. The juxtanuclear aggregation of pp60c-src-containing patches depends on microtubules and does not seem to occur within the Golgi apparatus and the rough ER. At the G2-to-M-phase transition, a drastic change in the localization patterns of pp60c-src takes place. We also report experiments in which the NIH c-src overexpresser cells were exposed to Con A for various times to induce a redistribution of the cell surface Con A receptors. We show that, at each stage of the Con A-mediated endocytotic process, the Con A-receptor complexes redistribute into structures to which pp60c-src appears also to be associated: at first, into patches that form at the cell surface level and then, into a cap that stands at the cell center in a juxtanuclear position and that coincides with the Golgi apparatus. During this capping process, pp60c-src-containing vesicles continue to accumulate in a centriolar spot, as in interphase, Con A-untreated cells, from which Con A is excluded. The significance of the intracellular locations of pp60c-src to the possible functions of the protein is discussed. Also, the distribution patterns of the cellular protein in the NIH c-src overexpresser cells are compared with those of pp60v-src in RSV-transformed cells. The differences observed are discussed in relation with the differences in transforming capacities of the two proteins. Finally, the possible physiological significance of the association between pp60c-src and the structures generated after the binding of Con A to its surface receptors is addressed.

Isolation of a cDNA corresponding to a developmentally regulated transcript in rat intestine

We report the isolation of a cDNA clone corresponding to a transcript that is accumulated differentially in rat intestine during development. Clone OCI-5 was selected from the rat intestinal cell line IEC-18, which represents primitive intestinal epithelial crypt cells. Expression was high in rat fetal intestine between 15 and 19 days of development and thereafter was progressively down regulated, becoming undetectable after weaning. Clone OCI-5 detected homologous sequences in human and murine cells. In particular, a high level of expression was detected in CaCo-2, a human colon carcinoma cell line, which is known to express molecules characteristic of fetal small intestinal cells. Expression of a homologous gene was also detected in F9 murine teratocarcinoma cells when they were induced to differentiate into parietal or visceral endodermlike cells. When IEC-18 cells were transformed by activated H-ras or v-src genes, expression of clone OCI-5 was suppressed; the degree of down-regulation correlated with the extent of morphological change induced in the transformed IEC-18 cells. The sequence of clone OCI-5 showed an open reading frame that was capable of encoding a protein of 597 amino acids, but no strong homology was found with any of the proteins registered in the protein sequence data base.

Isolation of a cDNA corresponding to a developmentally regulated transcript in rat intestine

We report the isolation of a cDNA clone corresponding to a transcript that is accumulated differentially in rat intestine during development. Clone OCI-5 was selected from the rat intestinal cell line IEC-18, which represents primitive intestinal epithelial crypt cells. Expression was high in rat fetal intestine between 15 and 19 days of development and thereafter was progressively down regulated, becoming undetectable after weaning. Clone OCI-5 detected homologous sequences in human and murine cells. In particular, a high level of expression was detected in CaCo-2, a human colon carcinoma cell line, which is known to express molecules characteristic of fetal small intestinal cells. Expression of a homologous gene was also detected in F9 murine teratocarcinoma cells when they were induced to differentiate into parietal or visceral endodermlike cells. When IEC-18 cells were transformed by activated H-ras or v-src genes, expression of clone OCI-5 was suppressed; the degree of down-regulation correlated with the extent of morphological change induced in the transformed IEC-18 cells. The sequence of clone OCI-5 showed an open reading frame that was capable of encoding a protein of 597 amino acids, but no strong homology was found with any of the proteins registered in the protein sequence data base.