Human Mammary Epithelial Cell Transformation by Rho GTPase Through a Novel Mechanism
Abstract
Rho family small GTPases serve as molecular switches in the regulation of diverse cellular functions. Importantly, Rho overexpression is frequently seen in many carcinomas. We demonstrate here, that ectopic expression of wild-type RhoA as well as a constitutively-active RhoA mutant (G14V) in two independent primary hMEC strains led to their immortalization and preneoplastic transformation. These cells have continued to grow over 300 population doublings with no signs of senescence, whereas cells expressing the vector or dominant-negative RhoA mutant (T19N) senesced after 20 population doublings. Significantly, RhoA-T37A mutant, known to be incapable of interacting with many well known Rho-effectors including Rho-kinase, PKN and mDia 1 and 2, was also capable of immortalizing hMECs. Notably, similar to parental normal cells, Rho-immortalized cells have wild-type p53 and intact G1 cell cycle arrest upon adriamycin treatment. Rho-immortalized cells were anchoragedependent. Microarray expression profiling of Rho-immortalized vs. parental cells showed altered expression of several genes previously implicated in immortalization and breast cancer progression. One of the gene ELF3 elevated in Rho immortal cells also is increased in breast cancer cell lines. Lastly, Rho immortal cells are derived from stem/progenitor cells but lack differentiation ability as compared to parental normal and TERT immortal cells. Taken together, these results demonstrate that RhoA can induce the preneoplastic transformation of hMECs by altering multiple pathways linked cellular transformation and breast cancer.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA549043
Entities
People
- Vimla Band
Organizations
- University of Nebraska Medical Center