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Molecular and Cellular Biology, December 2000, p. 8667-8675, Vol. 20, No. 23
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard
Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115,1
and Cancer Research Program, Garvan Institute of Medical
Research, Darlinghurst, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia2
Received 28 June 2000/Returned for modification 24 July
2000/Accepted 31 August 2000
We report that the functional interaction between cyclin D1 and the
estrogen receptor (ER) is regulated by a signal transduction pathway
involving the second messenger, cyclic AMP (cAMP). The cell-permeable
cAMP analogue 8-bromo-cAMP caused a concentration-dependent enhancement
of cyclin D1-ER complex formation, as judged both by
coimmunoprecipitation and mammalian two-hybrid analysis. This effect
was paralleled by increases in ligand-independent ER-mediated transcription from an estrogen response element containing
reporter construct. These effects of 8-bromo-cAMP were antagonized
by a specific protein kinase A (PKA) inhibitor,
indicating that the signaling pathway involved was PKA dependent.
Further, we show that culture of MCF-7 cells on a cellular
substratum of murine preadipocytes also enhanced the functional
interaction between cyclin D1 and ER in a PKA-dependent manner. These
findings demonstrate a collaboration between cAMP signaling and cyclin
D1 in the ligand-independent activation of ER-mediated transcription in
mammary epithelial cells and show that the functional associations of
cyclin D1 are regulated as a function of cellular context.
Cyclin D1 is well recognized as a
critical mitogen-regulated cell cycle control element which, in
association with a catalytic subunit, cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (cdk4)
or cdk6, effects the initial inactivating phosphorylation of the
retinoblastoma protein, pRb, and thereby promotes proliferation
(67, 78). Consistent with this biochemical function, cyclin
D1 is demonstrably oncogenic in a variety of tissues (28).
The cyclin D1 gene is amplified in approximately 30% of human breast
adenocarcinomas, and the protein is reportedly overexpressed in 60 to
80% of all cases (5, 8, 13, 23, 24, 48, 55, 79).
Paradoxically, these tumors are characterized by low proliferation
indices (55) and are thereby discriminated from cancers of
this tissue associated with pRb inactivation (35). Indeed,
there is no apparent relationship between cdk4 activity and cyclin D1
expression in breast cancer cell lines (75).
Consistent with these findings, there has been one report
that ectopic expression of cyclin D1 in mammary carcinoma cell
lines can actually inhibit proliferation (29). Taken
together, these observations suggest that cyclin D1 possesses functions
independent of, or in addition to, participation in pRb-mediated
promotion of cell cycle progression during mammary carcinogenesis.
Cyclin D1 also plays a specific and indispensable part in normal
mammary gland biology. Mice nullizygous for the cyclin D1 gene exhibit,
among surprisingly few defects, a dramatic impairment of
lobuloalveologenesis associated with pregnancy (68).
Further, in vitro models of this developmental process reveal a marked induction of cyclin D1 in the absence of corresponding increases in
associated kinase activity toward the formation of milk-secreting structures (52). Thus, cyclin D1 appears to possess an
exceptional function in the mammary epithelium, involved in both the
normal development and malignant transformation of this tissue.
An intimation of what this exceptional function of cyclin D1 might be
is provided by the demonstration that cyclin D1 can bind to, and
stimulate transcription mediated by, the estrogen receptor (ER) in both
a cdk- and ligand-independent manner (52, 82).
cdk-independent functions of cyclin D1 are not now unprecedented (6, 33). Since the majority of cyclin D1-overexpressing
mammary tumors also express ER (7, 32, 63) and since
activation of ER-dependent transcription is reported to closely
parallel cyclin D1 induction during the terminal differentiation of
normal mammary epithelial cells in vitro (52), it is
tempting to speculate that ER and cyclin D1 operate together during
organo- and carcinogenesis of the breast.
If ER is indeed an alternative, functionally relevant partner for
cyclin D1 in the mammary gland, it would seem reasonable to suppose
that the interaction between these two proteins be regulated.
Here we report that 8-bromo-cyclic AMP (8b-cAMP) acts synergistically with cyclin D1 to enhance ligand-independent
transcription from an estrogen response element (ERE) reporter in
mammary epithelial cells. As a corollary to these findings, we show
that 8b-cAMP can significantly and specifically enhance the in vivo
association between cyclin D1 and ER in a protein kinase A
(PKA)-dependent manner. Finally, we demonstrate that culture of breast
epithelial cells on a cellular substratum of murine preadipocytes
mimics the effects of 8b-cAMP treatment by enhancing the functional
interaction between cyclin D1 and ER in a PKA-dependent manner. These
findings demonstrate a collaboration between cAMP signaling and cyclin D1 in the ligand-independent activation of ER-mediated transcription in
mammary epithelial cells and show that the functional associations of
cyclin D1 are regulated as a function of cellular context. These
observations suggest a model in which stromal-epithelial communication
directs the function of cyclin D1 to effect specific aspects of mammary
gland organo- and carcinogenesis.
Cell culture and reagents.
MCF-7 human mammary epithelial
carcinoma cells, murine NIH 3T3 fibroblasts, and murine 3T3-L1
preadipocytes (26) were maintained in Dulbecco's minimal
essential medium (DMEM) supplemented with 10% fetal bovine serum
(FBS), penicillin, and streptomycin. The clonal MCF-7 derivative cell
line containing stably integrated cyclin D1 cDNA under the control of a
zinc-inducible metallothionein promoter, designated D1.13
(57), was maintained in DMEM supplemented with 10% FBS,
antibiotics, and 2 µg of insulin per ml. Cyclin D1 expression was
induced in these cells by treatment with zinc sulfate at a final
concentration of 70 µM. Where estrogen-free conditions were required,
cells were cultured in phenol red-free DMEM containing 5%
charcoal-dextran stripped FBS (HyClone) and antibiotics.
17 Plasmids and transfection.
Plasmid expression vectors for
carboxy-terminal hemagglutinin (HA)-tagged human cyclin D1
(pRc/CMV-cyclin D1-HA), an amino-terminal GAL4 DNA-binding domain
cyclin D1 fusion protein (pCMX-GAL4-cyclin D1), human ER Immunoprecipitation and Western blotting.
Whole-cell lysates
were prepared in EBC200 (50 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8], 200 mM NaCl, 0.5%
NP-40, 0.5 mM phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride, 1 mM NaF, 0.1 mM sodium
orthovanadate) and clarified by centrifugation. Lysates were subjected
to immunoprecipitation with mouse monoclonal anti-ER antibodies
(AER314; NeoMarkers) plus rabbit anti-mouse immunoglobulins (Sigma),
rabbit polyclonal anti-cdk4 (C-22; Santa Cruz) or anti-p27 (C-19; Santa
Cruz) antibodies, and protein A-Sepharose beads. Immune complexes were
washed four times with NETN (20 mM Tris-HCl [pH 8], 100 mM NaCl, 1 mM
EDTA, 0.5% NP-40), boiled in Laemmli buffer, and resolved by sodium
dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Proteins were
transferred to polyvinylidene difluoride membranes and visualized by
using antibodies against the HA epitope (12CA5), ER (AER314), cdk4
(C-22), p27 (C-19), or cyclin D1 (Ab-3; NeoMarkers), appropriate
peroxidase-conjugated secondary antibodies (Amersham), and enhanced
chemiluminescence detection (Amersham).
Transcriptional activation assays.
Cells were transfected
with p(ERE)2-tk-luc or pGAL4-TATA-luc and pCMV- The physical interaction between cyclin D1 and ER is
regulated.
Since the functional associations between cyclin D1 and
cdk4 or cdk6 are tightly regulated processes (38, 44, 47),
we wondered if the cyclin D1-ER interaction was similarly controlled. This possibility was tested by cotransfecting MCF-7 cells with plasmids
directing the expression of human ER
0270-7306/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Regulation of the Functional Interaction between
Cyclin D1 and the Estrogen Receptor
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ABSTRACT
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
INTRODUCTION
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
![]()
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
-Estradiol and 8b-cAMP were from Sigma. H-89 was from Calbiochem.
(pcDNA3.1-hER), human p27 (pCMV5-p27), human cdk4 (pCMV-cdk4), the GAL4
DNA-binding domain (pCMX-GAL4), the VP16 activation domain (pCMX-VP16),
and
-galactosidase (pCMV-
-gal) have been described previously
(20, 46, 52, 56, 76). The estrogen response element and
GAL4-binding-site luciferase reporter constructs,
p(ERE)2-tk-luc and pGAL4-TATA-luc, have also been described
elsewhere (36, 53). The plasmid directing the expression of
an amino-terminal VP16 activation domain ER
fusion protein
(pCMX-VP16-ER) was constructed as follows. An in-frame EcoRI
site was introduced immediately upstream of the human ER
start codon
in pcDNA3.1-FLAG-ER (46) by site-directed mutagenesis (Mutagene kit; Bio-Rad) using the oligonucleotide
5'-GTGGAGGGTCATGGTCATCGAATTCTTGTCATCGTCGTCCTT-3'. The
EcoRI-BamHI insert from the resulting plasmid was
ligated into pCMX-VP16 linearized with EcoRI and
BamHI. Transfections were made with Superfect reagent
(Qiagen) as specified by the manufacturer. The total amount of plasmid
transfected was kept constant within a given experiment by the addition
of empty vector (pRc/CMV).
-gal and
the specified expression plasmids. Various amounts of 8b-cAMP or
17
-estradiol were added 24 h later, and incubation was
continued for a further 24 h. For coculture experiments, transfected MCF-7 cells were trypsinized and replated on confluent cultures of NIH 3T3 fibroblasts or 3T3-L1 preadipocytes or on culture
plastic. Where indicated, 8b-cAMP was added 24 h later and
incubation was continued for a further 24 h. All ER
transactivation assays were conducted under estrogen-free conditions.
Luciferase and
-galactosidase activities were measured as described
previously (17), and luciferase activities were corrected
with respect to the corresponding
-galactosidase internal control.
![]()
RESULTS
Top
Abstract
Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion
References
and HA-tagged human cyclin D1.
We discovered that treatment of these cells with the cell-permeable
cAMP analogue 8b-cAMP resulted in a marked, concentration-dependent increase in the amount of cyclin D1-HA coimmunoprecipitated with ER
(Fig. 1A). The total level of cyclin
D1-HA was unaffected by 8b-cAMP (Fig. 1A). Increases in the amount of
cyclin D1-HA associated with ER were apparent by 3 h, although
16 h of treatment was required for the maximum effect (Fig. 1B).
Mammalian two-hybrid analyses also revealed an enhancement of the
cyclin D1-ER interaction in the presence of 8b-cAMP (see Fig. 5B). The
ability of 8b-cAMP to enhance the association between cyclin D1 and ER
was unaffected by the presence or absence of added estrogen (data not
shown).

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FIG. 1.
The physical interaction between cyclin D1 and ER is
enhanced by 8b-cAMP in a concentration- and PKA-dependent manner. MCF-7
cells were transfected with pRc/CMV-cyclin D1-HA (6.9 µg) and
pcDNA3.1-hER (5.8 µg). (A) At 24 h later, various amounts of
8b-cAMP or vehicle control were added. Incubation was continued for a
further 24 h. Whole-cell lysates were prepared, and cyclin D1-ER
complex formation was analyzed by immunoprecipitation with ER
antibodies (AER314) followed by Western blotting for cyclin D1-HA using
12CA5 antibody against the HA epitope (middle panel). The relative
amounts of ER precipitated (top panel) and cyclin D1-HA present in the
whole-cell lysates (WCL; bottom panel) were assessed by Western
blotting with the same anti-ER and anti-HA antibodies. (B) 8b-cAMP (100 µM) or vehicle control was added at the indicated times before cell
lysis. The total posttransfection incubation time was 48 h.
Lysates were analyzed as described for panel A. (C) At 24 h after
transfection, various amounts of H-89 or vehicle control were added,
immediately followed by 8b-cAMP (100 µM) or vehicle control.
Incubation was continued for a further 24 h. Lysates were analyzed
as described for panel A.
cholera toxin (1 µg/ml),
forskolin (50 µM), and isobutylmethyxanthine (1 mM)
also enhanced
the cyclin D1-ER interaction (data not shown).
Treatment with 8b-cAMP reveals an interaction between endogenous ER
and cyclin D1.
The ability of 8b-cAMP treatment to enhance the
physical interaction between ectopically expressed cyclin D1 and ER was
such that we investigated the possibility that 8b-cAMP might also
stimulate an interaction between the endogenous proteins. The clonal
MCF-7 derivative cell line D1.13 expresses both endogenous ER and
cyclin D1 but also exhibits modest zinc-inducible expression of
exogenous cyclin D1 from a stably integrated metallothionein promoter
construct (57). We reasoned that this cell system would
allow us to assess the ability of 8b-cAMP to promote the formation of
complexes between endogenous ER and cyclin D1 when its expression was
induced to an extent comparable to the increases seen during mammary
epithelial cell differentiation in vitro (52) and
pregnancy-induced mammary gland development in vivo (42).
Treatment of D1.13 cells with zinc sulfate did indeed increase cyclin
D1 levels by about twofold relative to a cdk4 loading control (Fig.
2A), much as reported elsewhere
(57). Anti-ER immunoprecipitation followed by Western blotting with cyclin D1 antibodies revealed that this modest increase was sufficient to induce a detectable interaction between endogenous ER
and cyclin D1 when these D1.13 cells were treated with 8b-cAMP before
being subjected to zinc induction (Fig. 2B). This finding suggests that
activation of a PKA-dependent signaling pathway can promote a physical
interaction between ER and cyclin D1 even when both proteins are
expressed at physiological levels.
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The effect of 8b-cAMP is specific for the cyclin D1-ER
interaction.
Next, we determined if 8b-cAMP could affect the
association between cyclin D1 and two of its other protein partners,
cdk4 and p27, and whether p27 would promote the assembly of cyclin D1
with ER, as it does for cyclin D1 with cdk4 (10, 38). MCF-7 cells were transfected with plasmids directing the expression of ER,
p27, or cdk4, and cyclin D1-HA. These cells were then treated with
8b-cAMP (100 µM), and the effect on each protein-protein interaction
was assessed by coimmunoprecipitation with antibodies specific for ER,
cdk4, or p27. As is clear from Fig. 3,
while the interaction between cyclin D1 and ER was significantly
enhanced by 8b-cAMP treatment (lanes 7 and 8), cyclin D1-p27 complex
formation was unaffected (lanes 5 and 6). Similarly, when cyclin D1-HA, cdk4, and p27 expression plasmids were cotransfected, 8b-cAMP had no
influence on the amount of cyclin D1-HA immunoprecipitated with cdk4
(lanes 3 and 4).
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Cyclin D1 and 8b-cAMP act synergistically to stimulate
ligand-independent activation of ER.
Since cyclin D1 can stimulate
the transcriptional function of ER in the absence of ligand (52,
82), we tested whether 8b-cAMP-mediated enhancement of the
physical interaction between these two proteins would affect
ER-dependent transcription. MCF-7 cells were transfected with cyclin
D1-HA plasmid or vector control, together with an ER expression plasmid
and an ERE-luciferase reporter construct. The addition of 8b-cAMP in
the absence of cyclin D1 plasmid resulted in a modest increase in
ligand-independent ER-mediated transactivation, as did the expression
of cyclin D1 in the absence of 8b-cAMP, much as reported elsewhere
(2, 16, 52, 82). However, 8b-cAMP exhibited a marked,
concentration-dependent synergy with cyclin D1 in the activation of ER
(Fig. 4). The extent of this activation
not only was greater than that reported to date (52, 82) but
also approximated that seen with 17
-estradiol, a well-recognized ER
ligand.
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Stromal-epithelial communication affects the functional interaction between cyclin D1 and ER. The interactions of epithelial parenchyma and mesenchymal stroma have long been appreciated as critical to determination of the structure and normal function of the mammary gland (for reviews, see references 31, 59, and 62). The importance of the cellular microenvironment to ductal and alveolar morphogenesis, epithelial-cell differentiation, and tissue-specific or hormone-dependent gene expression can also be demonstrated in vitro (1, 4). For example, primary mouse mammary epithelial cells can undergo functional differentiation to form ductal and alveolar-type structures and can recapitulate the ability to synthesize milk proteins in response to lactogenic hormones exhibited in situ when cocultured with murine adipocytes or preadipocytes (40, 80). Because cAMP has been implicated in the transduction of intercellular signals (19, 54, 70) and since cyclin D1-mediated activation of ER-dependent transcription has been associated with extracellular matrix-dependent terminal differentiation of normal mammary epithelial cells in vitro (52), we used a preadipocyte coculture system to study the influence of stromal-epithelial communication on the cyclin D1-ER interaction and the possible involvement of PKA.
MCF-7 cells were transfected with expression plasmids encoding ER and HA-tagged cyclin D1, trypsinized, and replated on confluent cultures of mouse 3T3-L1 preadipocytes or NIH 3T3 fibroblasts. The physical interaction between cyclin D1 and ER in the epithelial (MCF-7) cells was then assessed by coimmunoprecipitation and Western blotting with an anti-HA antibody. This analysis revealed that culture on a cellular substratum of preadipocytes, but not fibroblasts, resulted in a marked enhancement of cyclin D1-ER complex formation (Fig. 5A, compare lanes 3 and 7). A fully differentiated adipocyte substratum also promoted cyclin D1-ER assembly (data not shown).
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DISCUSSION |
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Our data show that the physical interaction between cyclin D1 and ER is markedly and specifically enhanced, in a concentration-dependent manner, by the cAMP analogue 8b-cAMP. The sensitivity of this effect to a specific inhibitor of PKA and the fact that a number of agents known to activate adenylate cyclase mimic the influence of 8b-cAMP suggest that cyclin D1-ER complex formation is regulated by a PKA-dependent signaling pathway.
The functional consequence of activating this regulatory pathway is revealed by our demonstration that 8b-cAMP exhibits a strong, concentration-dependent synergy with cyclin D1 for ligand-independent activation of ER transcription. The level of transactivation approached that associated with estrogen treatment, indicating that maximal activation of ER can be achieved by cyclin D1 overexpression, provided that the appropriate cellular signals are present.
The candidacy of cAMP as an important second messenger in mammary gland
biology is substantially supported by in vivo data. It has been known
for many years that intracellular cAMP levels increase markedly in the
mammary gland during pregnancy in the mouse (58), rat
(60, 61), and guinea pig (41) and are persistently elevated in rat and human mammary tumors (12, 27, 34,
37, 51), as is PKA activity (21, 25, 43, 65). It is
also now appreciated that cAMP-binding proteins
especially the RI
regulatory subunit of PKA (type I)
are overexpressed in a significant
proportion of primary human breast tumors and that this feature has
independent diagnostic and prognostic significance, being correlated
with poor clinicopathology and outcome (49, 50).
Perhaps the most compelling evidence for an important role for cAMP in normal mammary development is provided by the observations that systemic administration of cholera toxin, an activator of adenylate cyclase, potently stimulates lobuloalveologenesis in the mouse and, together with estrogen and progesterone, causes mammary gland development closely resembling that seen during pregnancy (66, 69). Indeed, in a classical text of mammary gland biology, Daniel and Silberstein conclude that cAMP probably "serves as an intracellular effector of as yet unidentified mammogens" and highlight the importance of this "as yet unidentified, cAMP-mediated pathway" (14).
In vitro studies not only appear to complement these in vivo findings but also implicate ER in the cellular response to increases in cAMP levels, showing that both cholera toxin and 8b-cAMP can stimulate ligand-independent transcription from an ERE reporter (2) and of estrogen-responsive genes, LIV-1 and pS2 (16).
The means by which cAMP induces ER-mediated transactivation are
unknown. However, given that (i) cyclin D1 can also stimulate ligand-independent activation of ER-mediated transcription (52, 82), (ii) increases in its levels during pregnancy (42,
71) and in tumors (5, 23, 24) broadly parallel those
in the levels of intracellular cAMP and PKA activity, and (iii)
artificial elevation of cAMP levels in the mammary gland (66,
69) brings about the developmental changes (i.e., alveologenesis)
characteristically defective in the cyclin
D1
/
mammary phenotype (68), we believe
that the discovery that cyclin D1 and 8b-cAMP exhibit a marked synergy
in ER activation highlights a cooperativity between cyclin D1 and cAMP
signaling in mammary organo- and carcinogenesis.
The cooperativity between cyclin D1 and cAMP may simply reside in positive regulation of the physical interaction between cyclin D1 and ER. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that the level of ER activity closely correlated with the amount of cyclin subunit bound to the receptor. Cyclin D1 can associate with P/CAF and SRC-1 and can recruit these transcriptional coactivators to unliganded ER (46, 81). Therefore, it is likely that increases in the cyclin D1 content and hence in the coactivator content of the ER transactivation complex account for the influence of cAMP and its analogues on ER-mediated transcription.
It remains to be determined how PKA-dependent signals promote the functional interaction between cyclin D1 and ER. Cyclin D1 has long been recognized as being subject to posttranslational modification (45), and both cyclin D1 and ER are reportedly phosphorylated, at multiple sites, by PKA (9, 39, 64). However, preliminary experiments indicate that cyclin D1 is the sole target of this pathway, although none of the published cyclin D1 phosphorylation sites appear important for the interaction (data not shown). An alternative model implicates an as yet unidentified inhibitor of cyclin D1-ER complex formation as the ultimate target of PKA.
Our demonstration that the functional interaction between cyclin D1 and ER is significantly enhanced in mammary epithelial cells when cultured on particular cellular substrata highlights the potential biological significance of a regulatory pathway controlling cyclin D1-ER assembly. Fibroblasts were unable to promote assembly, while preadipocytes or adipocytes, which approximate the normal supporting connective tissue in vivo, were markedly competent in this regard. The parallels between these findings and others in the literature are striking. Primary murine mammary epithelial cells form branching ductal and alveolar-type structures when cocultured with preadipocytes and adipocytes but not with fibroblasts (80). Also, such epithelial cells acquire a basal lamina, cellular polarity, and secretory organelles and synthesize milk proteins in response to lactogenic hormones only when provided with a microenvironment of adipocytes or preadipocytes (40, 80).
Since the specific cellular substrata required to support cytodifferentiation and secretory differentiation also promote cyclin D1-ER function and since cyclin D1-mediated activation of ER-dependent transcription has been associated with extracellular matrix-dependent differentiation of normal mammary epithelial cells (52), it is tempting to speculate that these observations are related. It is possible that the cellular microenvironment of the mammary gland "specifies" the cyclin D1-ER interaction and that this complex accounts for the exceptional, tissue-specific function of cyclin D1 (i.e., alveologenesis) revealed by the cyclin D1 nullizygous mouse (68).
A recent demonstration that cyclin E expressed in the mouse under the
control of the natural cyclin D1 promoter ("cyclin E
D1 knock-in") can rescue the mammary development defect associated with
cyclin D1 nullizygosity (22) has cast doubt on
the notion that cyclin D1 has any exceptional activity whose
contribution is required for the complete development of a mammary
gland. However, while the neurological and retinal defects of the
cyclin D1
/
mouse appear to be fully reversed
by knock-in cyclin E, only a subset (35%) of cyclin E
D1 females
were able to nurse their pups normally (22). This
discrepancy might imply that cyclin D1 does indeed exert a function
unique to the mammary gland for which cyclin E cannot substitute. It is
conceivable that cyclin D1 must contribute both a proliferative
influence
which can be approximated by cyclin E
and a cdk-independent
ER-mediated action for the full and reliable development of a
functional mammary gland.
Disruption of the stromal environment has now been convincingly shown to promote the phenotypic conversion and malignant transformation of mammary epithelial cells (72). Conversely, suppression of the aberrant transduction of signals from the extracellular matrix can cause reversion of the malignant phenotype of human breast cancer cells (77). Whether substratum-directed promotion of cyclin D1-ER complex formation contributes to mammary tumorigenesis is currently unknown. However, it is an intriguing possibility that the nature of cyclin D1-mediated oncogenesis could be modified by stromal influences.
The effects of a preadipocyte substratum and 8b-cAMP could be independent or could operate through a common signaling pathway. The observations that enhancement of the cyclin D1-ER interaction afforded by coculture can be at least partially antagonized by a PKA inhibitor and that treatment with 8b-cAMP does not further enhance coculture-induced assembly (data not shown) would appear to argue for the latter possibility. Indications that cAMP signaling is integral to the transduction of stromal-epithelial communications (19, 54, 70) also support this notion, but the question remains open.
Lethal irradiation of the preadipocyte layer did not block the
enhancement of cyclin D1-ER complex formation (data not shown) or the
promotion of epithelial-cell differentiation in the coculture experiments described previously (40, 80). These findings suggest that the effects are mediated by direct cell-cell contacts or
through the formation of a basement membrane. This has indeed been
shown to be true for the functional differentiation of mammary epithelial cells, with the communication involving integrins, laminin
(18, 73, 74), and
-1,4-galactosyltransferase (3, 30). Whether these elements also transduce signals that promote cyclin D1-ER complex formation or whether other participants in intercellular communication, such as the Wnt proteins (15), are involved has yet to be determined. Future work will seek to elucidate the signaling pathways from the cell surface, through PKA, to
cyclin D1-ER assembly.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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We thank Joan Massague for the human p27 expression plasmid (pCMV5-p27), Bruce Spiegelman for 3T3-L1 cells, Ron Evans for pCMX-GAL4 and pCMX-VP16, and Donald McDonnell for pGAL4-TATA-luc.
This work was supported by grants from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Breast Cancer Research Program (to J.L.), the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (to R.L.S.), the New South Wales Cancer Council (to R.L.S.), the National Institutes of Health (PO1 CA80111) (to M.E.E.), and Novartis Pharmaceutical Corp. (to M.E.E.). J.L. is a Suzanne Sheats Breast Cancer Research Fellow. M.E.E. is a Scholar for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America.
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FOOTNOTES |
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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, D728, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA 02115. Phone: (617) 632-2206. Fax: (617) 632-5417. E-mail: mark_ewen{at}dfci.harvard.edu.
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