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Advances in Brief |
Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
| ABSTRACT |
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(TGF-
) inhibits cell proliferation in many cell types, and acquisition of TGF-
resistance has been linked to tumorigenesis. One class of proteins that plays a key role in the TGF-
signal transduction pathway is the SMAD protein family. MDM2, a key negative regulator of p53, has recently been shown to suppress TGF-
-induced growth arrest in a p53-independent manner. Here we show that MDM2 and the structurally related protein MDMX can inhibit the transcriptional activity of ectopically expressed SMAD1, SMAD2, SMAD3, and SMAD4. Immunofluorescence staining indicated that ectopically expressed SMAD4 was present in both the cytoplasm and nucleus, and MDM2 and MDMX were localized mainly to the nucleus and cytoplasm, respectively. When SMAD4 was coexpressed with either MDM2 or MDMX, nuclear accumulation of SMAD4 was strikingly inhibited. We have no evidence that SMAD4 binds directly to MDM2 or MDMX; hence, the inactivation and nuclear exclusion of SMAD4 by MDM2/MDMX may involve other indirect mechanisms. | Introduction |
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3
inhibits cell proliferation in many cell types, and acquisition of TGF-
resistance has been linked to tumorigenesis. The TGF-
signal transduction pathway involves cell surface receptor serine/threonine kinases and the SMAD proteins, which translocate into the nucleus, where they activate target gene transcription (1)
. MDM2 is a key negative regulator of the tumor suppressor p53; overexpression of MDM2 has also been linked to tumorigenesis (2)
. MDM2 has recently been linked to the TGF-
pathway by the finding that MDM2 suppresses TGF-
-induced growth arrest in a p53-independent manner (3)
. The exact mechanism by which MDM2 affects the TGF-
pathway is unknown. Here we sought to investigate the effects of MDM2 and the structurally related protein MDMX (4)
on the transcriptional activity of ectopically expressed SMAD1, SMAD2, SMAD3, and SMAD4 in p53-null cells. The activity of SMAD proteins was explored by the approach in which ectopically expressed SMAD proteins are able to activate the transcription of SMAD-responsive promoters (5)
. | Materials and Methods |
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-galactosidase expression plasmid and the p3TP-luciferase construct (7)
were obtained from Dr. Yan Chen (The Salk Institute, La Jolla, CA). MDM2 in pCMV and the p21Cip1/Waf1 promoter-luciferase reporter construct were gifts from Dr. Bert Vogelstein (The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, Baltimore, MD). GST-MDM2 in pCAGGS and GST-MDMX in pCAGGS for mammalian expression were obtained from Dr. Katsumi Yamashita (Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan). Human ARF in pBluescript KS+ was obtained from Dr. Gordon Peters (ICRF, London, United Kingdom). The ARF coding region was amplified by PCR with 5'-GACCATGGTGCGCAGGTTCTTGGT-3' and T3 primer, cut with NcoI and XhoI, and put into pGEX-KG. The NcoI-EcoRI fragment of GST-ARF in pGEX-KG was put into NcoI- and EcoRI-cut pUHD-P1 to create FLAG-ARF in pUHD-P1.
Cell Culture and Transfection.
H1299 cells (human non-small cell lung carcinoma cells) were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (Manassas, VA). HtTA1 cells were gifts from H. Bujard. HtTA1 cells were HeLa cells (human cervical carcinoma cells) stably transfected with pUHD15-1 expressing the tTA tetracycline repressor chimera (8)
, and they can express genes cloned into the pUHD-P1 vector in the absence of tetracycline. Cells were grown in DMEM supplemented with 10% v/v calf serum (for HeLa cells) or 10% v/v fetal bovine serum (Life Technologies, Inc.) in a humidified incubator at 37°C with 5% CO2. Semiconfluent cells were transiently transfected using the calcium phosphate precipitation method (9)
. The total amount of DNA for each transfection was adjusted to the same level using vectors with the same promoter. Cells were grown for an additional 24 h after transfection before being harvested for cell extracts. Cell-free extracts were prepared as described previously (10)
. The protein concentration of cell lysates was measured with bicinchoninic acid protein assay system (Pierce) using BSA as a standard.
Luciferase and
-Galactosidase Assays.
Luciferase assays were performed according to the manufacturers instructions (Roche Molecular Biochemicals). Total light emission during the first 5 s was measured in a luminometer (Monolight 2010; Analytical Luminescence Laboratory, San Diego, CA). The luciferase assay results were normalized with the
-galactosidase activity of the same extracts.
-Galactosidase assays were performed by incubating cell extracts in a buffer containing 45 mM Na2HPO4, 30 mM NaH2PO4, 7.5 mM KCl, 0.75 mM MgCl2, 37.5 mM
-mercaptoethanol, and 1.5 mg/ml ortho-nitrophenyl-
-D-galactopyranoside at 37°C. Yellow color development was assessed at A420 nm.
Expression and Purification of GST-Fusion Proteins.
Expression of GST-tagged proteins in bacteria and purification with GSH-agarose chromatography were as described previously (11)
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GSH-Agarose Binding.
GST-fusion proteins were recovered with 15 µl of GSH-agarose in 250 µl of bead buffer (6)
. After incubation at 4°C with end-to-end rotation for 45 min, the beads were washed five times with 250 µl of bead buffer. The samples were then dissolved in 30 µl of SDS sample buffer, and the bound proteins were detected by SDS-PAGE followed by immunoblotting.
Antibodies and Immunological Methods.
Rabbit anti-GST antibodies were gifts from Dr. J. Gannon and T. Hunt (ICRF, South Mimms, UK). Monoclonal antibody 2A10 against MDM2 was a gift from Dr. A. Levine (Princeton University). Monoclonal antibody M2 against FLAG tag was obtained from Eastman Kodak. Immunoblottings were performed as described previously (12)
, except for the anti-FLAG tag monoclonal antibody M2, which was used according to the manufacturers instructions. Immunoprecipitations were performed as described previously (12)
. For immunostaining, cells grown on glass coverslips coated with poly-L-lysine were fixed in freshly made 3% formaldehyde and 2% sucrose in PBS at room temperature for 5 min. The cells were then washed with PBS and 0.1 M glycine at room temperature for 5 min and permeabilized and blocked with PBS, 2% normal goat serum, and 0.4% Triton X-100 at room temperature for 15 min. The cells were then washed three times with wash buffer (PBS, 0.2% Triton X-100, and 0.2% BSA) and incubated with the primary antibodies in PBS and 0.1% Triton X-100 at room temperature for 2 h. After washing five times with wash buffer, the cells were incubated with FITC-conjugated swine antirabbit IgG (DAKO) in PBS and 0.1% Triton X-100 at room temperature for 1 h, followed by TRITC-conjugated rabbit antimouse IgG (DAKO) in PBS and 0.1% Triton X-100 at room temperature for 1 h. After washing five times with wash buffer, Hoechst 33258 dye was used for nuclear staining. The slides were then washed three times with wash buffer, mounted, and visualized with a fluorescence microscope with appropriate filters.
| Results and Discussion |
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-galactosidase expression construct. Fig. 1A
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Similar to SMAD4, the transcriptional activities of other SMAD proteins that stimulate the TGF-
pathway were also reduced by MDM2. We found that the p21Cip1/Waf1 promoter luciferase activity associated with ectopically expressed SMAD1 (Fig. 2A)
, SMAD2 (Fig. 2B)
, and SMAD3 (Fig. 2C)
were all diminished by coexpression of MDM2.
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Effects through SMAD Proteins?
-induced cell cycle arrest (3)
, the data presented here may suggest a possible mechanism of how this can be achieved. It is possible that MDM2 modulates the TGF-
effect on the cell by stopping SMAD from going into the nucleus to activate transcription of downstream targets. However, more questions remain to be answered. If MDM2 and MDMX do not act directly on SMAD4, what could the molecular mechanism(s) that allows MDM2/MDMX to inhibit SMAD4 activity be? One possibility is that MDM2/MDMX may bind directly to the promoter region or act on cofactors of SMAD transcription. It is also possible that the interaction between SMAD4 and MDM2 is transient and much weaker than that of MDM2-ARF and did not survive the stringent washing conditions that we used. Another possibility is that MDM2/MDMX may target proteins that regulate SMAD localization; this is supported by the change in SMAD4 localization in the presence of MDM2/MDMX (Fig. 4)
It is possible that SMAD signaling may require p53-related proteins like p73, which also interact with MDM2 and MDMX (13, 14, 15)
. MDM2 can bind to p53 and target p53 for proteasome-mediated proteolysis (16
, 17)
. Using a promoter turn off assay, we found that the half-life of SMAD4 was not significantly affected by MDM2 or MDMX.4
We propose that one way that MDM2 and MDMX inhibit the TGF-
-induced cell cycle arrest may be through the inhibition of SMAD proteins entering the nucleus to activate transcription.
The inhibition of SMAD4 transcriptional activity shown here is not complete (Figs. 1
and 2
). This could be due to the fact that the expression of MDM2 and MDMX is lower that of SMAD proteins. Increasing the amount of MDM2 and MDMX constructs did further decrease the transcriptional activity of SMAD4, to the extent that the amount of DNA used started to affect the transcriptional efficiency (data not shown). One essential question that needs to be investigated in the future is whether MDM2 and MDMX can affect the SMAD proteins after TGF-
stimulation. This will require the study of endogenous SMAD proteins in TGF-
-responsive cells in the presence or absence of MDM2 and MDMX.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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1 Supported in part by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council Grant HKUST6188/97 M and IDTC Grant AF/178/97 (to R. Y. C. P). C. H. Y. is a recipient of the Croucher Foundation Scholarship. ![]()
2 To whom requests for reprints should be addressed, at Department of Biochemistry, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Phone: 852-2358-8703; Fax: 852-2358-1552; E-mail: bcrandy{at}ust.hk ![]()
3 The abbreviations used are: TGF-
, transforming growth factor
; GSH, glutathione; GST, glutathione S-transferase; CMV, cytomegalovirus; TRITC, tetramethylrhodamine isothiocyanate. ![]()
Received 6/ 9/99. Accepted 8/27/99.
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