Protein secretion by enteropathogenic Escherichia coli is essential for transducing signals to epithelial cells.

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), a major cause of pediatric diarrhea, adheres to epithelial cells and activates host cell signal transduction pathways. We have identified five proteins that are secreted by EPEC and show that this secretion process is critical for triggering signal transduction events in epithelial cells. Protein secretion occurs via two pathways: one secretes a 110-kDa protein and the other mediates export of the four remaining proteins. Secretion of all five proteins was regulated by temperature and the perA locus, two factors which regulate expression of other known EPEC virulence factors. Amino-terminal sequence analysis of the secreted polypeptides identified one protein (37 kDa) as the product of the eaeB gene, a genetic locus previously shown to be necessary for signal transduction. A second protein (39 kDa) showed significant homology with glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase, while the other three proteins (110, 40, and 25 kDa) were unique. The secreted proteins associated with epithelial cells, and EaeB became resistant to protease digestion upon association, suggesting that intimate interactions are required for transducing signals.

Constitutive and regulated membrane expression of aquaporin 1 and aquaporin 2 water channels in stably transfected LLC-PK1 epithelial cells.

The aquaporins (AQPs) are a family of homologous water-channel proteins that can be inserted into epithelial cell plasma membranes either constitutively (AQP1) or by regulated exocytosis following vasopressin stimulation (AQP2). LLC-PK1 porcine renal epithelial cells were stably transfected with cDNA encoding AQP2 (tagged with a C-terminal c-Myc epitope) or rat kidney AQP1 cDNA in an expression vector containing a cytomegalovirus promoter. Immunofluorescence staining revealed that AQP1 was mainly localized to the plasma membrane, whereas AQP2 was predominantly located on intracellular vesicles. After treatment with vasopressin or forskolin for 10 min, AQP2 was relocated to the plasma membrane, indicating that this relocation was induced by cAMP. The location of AQP1 did not change. The basal water permeability of AQP1-transfected cells was 2-fold greater than that of nontransfected cells, whereas the permeability of AQP2-transfected cells increased significantly only after vasopressin treatment. Endocytotic uptake of fluorescein isothiocyanate-coupled dextran was stimulated 6-fold by vasopressin in AQP2-transfected cells but was only slightly increased in wild-type or AQP1-transfected cells. This vasopressin-induced endocytosis was inhibited in low-K+ medium, which selectively affects clathrin-mediated endocytosis. These water channel-transfected cells represent an in vitro system that will allow the detailed dissection of mechanisms involved in the processing, targeting, and trafficking of proteins via constitutive versus regulated intracellular transport pathways.

Dynamics of active lamellae in cultured epithelial cells: effects of expression of exogenous N-ras oncogene.

We examined the functional consequences of cellular transformation of rat IAR-2 epithelial cells, by a mutant N-ras oncogene, on the dynamics of active lamellae, structures that play an important role in cell motility, adhesion, and surface-receptor capping. Lamellar activity was assessed by measuring the rate of outer-edge pseudopodial activity and by analyzing the motility of Con A-coated beads placed on lamellar surfaces with optical tweezers. Although transformation dramatically affected the shape and size of active cellular lamellae, there was little detectable effect on either pseudopodial activity or bead movement. To investigate the potential relationship between functional lamellar activity and the microtubule cytoskeleton, lamellar activity was examined in nontransformed and transformed cells treated with the microtubule-disrupting drug nocodazole. In the absence of microtubules, transformed cells were less polarized and possessed decreased rates of pseudopodial and bead motility. On the basis of these observations, it is suggested that ras-induced transformation of epithelial cells consists of two cytoskeletal modifications: overall diminished actin cytoskeletal dynamics in lamellae and reorganization of the microtubule cytoskeleton that directs pseudopodial activity to smaller polarized lamellae.

A mutation in the epithelial sodium channel causing Liddle disease increases channel activity in the Xenopus laevis oocyte expression system.

We have studied the functional consequences of a mutation in the epithelial Na+ channel that causes a heritable form of salt-sensitive hypertension, Liddle disease. This mutation, identified in the original kindred described by Liddle, introduces a premature stop codon in the channel beta subunit, resulting in a deletion of almost all of the C terminus of the encoded protein. Coexpression of the mutant beta subunit with wild-type alpha and gamma subunits in Xenopus laevis oocytes resulted in an approximately 3-fold increase in the macroscopic amiloride-sensitive Na+ current (INa) compared with the wild-type channel. This change in INa reflected an increase in the overall channel activity characterized by a higher number of active channels in membrane patches. The truncation mutation in the beta subunit of epithelial Na+ channel did not alter the biophysical and pharmacological properties of the channel--including unitary conductance, ion selectivity, or sensitivity to amiloride block. These results provide direct physiological evidence that Liddle disease is related to constitutive channel hyperactivity in the cell membrane. Deletions of the C-terminal end of the beta and gamma subunits of rat epithelial Na+ channel were functionally equivalent in increasing INa, suggesting that the cytoplasmic domain of the gamma subunit might be another molecular target for mutations responsible for salt-sensitive forms of hypertension.

Disulfide oxidoreductase activity of Shigella flexneri is required for release of Ipa proteins and invasion of epithelial cells.

Secretion of IpaB, IpaC, and IpaD proteins of Shigella flexneri, essential for the invasion of epithelial cells, requires a number of proteins encoded by the spa and mxi loci on the large plasmid. Introduction of dsbA::Tn5 into S.flexneri from Escherichia coli K-12 reduced invasiveness, which resulted from a decrease in the capacity to release IpaB, IpaC, and IpaD proteins into the external medium. Examination of the surface-presented Ipa proteins of the dsbA mutant, however, revealed Ipa proteins at levels similar to those on wild-type cells. Since the defective phenotype was similar to that of the spa32 mutant of S. flexneri and the Spa32 sequence possessed two Cys residues, the effect of dsbA mutation of the folding structure of Spa32 under reducing conditions and on the surface expression of Spa32 was investigated. The results indicated that Spa32 was a disulfide-containing protein whose correctly folded structure was required for its presentation on the outer membrane. Indeed, replacing either one of the two Cys residues in Spa32 with Ser by site-directed mutagenesis reduced its capacity to release Ipa proteins into the external medium and led to the accumulation of Spa32 protein in the periplasm. These results indicated that the DsbA protein performs an essential function during the invasion of mammalian cells, by facilitating transport of the Spa32 protein across the outer membrane.

Immunolocalization of the mercurial-insensitive water channel and glycerol intrinsic protein in epithelial cell plasma membranes.

Two water channel homologs were cloned recently from rat kidney, mercurial-insensitive water channel (MIWC) and glycerol intrinsic protein (GLIP). Polyclonal antibodies were raised against synthetic C-terminal peptides and purified by affinity chromatography. MIWC and GLIP antibodies recognized proteins in rat kidney with an apparent molecular mass of 30 and 27 kDa, respectively, and did not cross-react. By immunofluorescence, MIWC and GLIP were expressed together on the basolateral plasma membrane of collecting duct principal cells in kidney. By immunohistochemistry, MIWC and GLIP were expressed on tracheal epithelial cells with greater expression of GLIP on the basal plasma membrane and MIWC on the lateral membrane; only MIWC was expressed in bronchial epithelia. In eye, GLIP was expressed in conjunctival epithelium, whereas MIWC was found in iris, ciliary body, and neural cell layers in retina. MIWC and GLIP colocalized on the basolateral membrane of villus epithelial cells in colon and brain ependymal cells. Expression of MIWC and GLIP was not detected in small intestine, liver, spleen, endothelia, and cells that express water channels CHIP28 or WCH-CD. These studies suggest water/solute transporting roles for MIWC and GLIP in the urinary concentrating mechanism, cerebrospinal fluid absorption, ocular fluid balance, fecal dehydration, and airway humidification. The unexpected membrane colocalization of MIWC and GLIP in several tissues suggests an interaction at the molecular and/or functional levels.

Differential tubulogenic and branching morphogenetic activities of growth factors: implications for epithelial tissue development.

At least two kidney epithelial cell lines, the Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) and the murine inner medullary collecting duct line mIMCD-3, can be induced to form branching tubular structures when cultured with hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) plus serum in collagen I gels. In our studies, whereas MDCK cells remained unable to form tubules in the presence of serum alone, mIMCD-3 cells formed impressive branching tubular structures with apparent lumens, suggesting the existence of specific factors in serum that are tubulogenic for mIMCD-3 cells but not for MDCK cells. Since normal serum does not contain enough HGF to induce tubulogenesis, these factors appeared to be substances other than HGF. This was also suggested by another observation: when MDCK cells or mIMCD-3 cells were cocultured under serum-free conditions with the embryonic kidney, both cell types formed branching tubular structures similar to those induced by HGF; however, only in the case of MDCK cells could this be inhibited by neutralizing antibodies against HGF. Thus, the embryonic kidney produces growth factors other than HGF capable of inducing tubule formation in the mIMCD-3 cells. Of a number of growth factors examined, transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-alpha) and epidermal growth factor (EGF) were found to be tubulogenic for mIMCD-3 cells. Whereas only HGF was a potent tubulogenic factor for MDCK cells, HGF, TGF-alpha, and EGF were potent tubulogenic factors for mIMCD-3 cells. Nevertheless, there were marked differences in the capacity of these tubulogenic factors to induce tubulation as well as branching events in those tubules that did form (HGF >> TGF-alpha > EGF). Thus, at least three different growth factors can induce tubulogenesis and branching in a specific epithelial cell in vitro (though to different degrees), and different epithelial cells that are capable of forming branching tubular structures demonstrate vastly different responses to tubulogenic growth factors. The results are discussed in the context of branching morphogenesis during epithelial tissue development.

Enhanced expression of an insulin growth factor-like binding protein (mac25) in senescent human mammary epithelial cells and induced expression with retinoic acid.

mac25, the subject of this report, was selected by the differential display of mRNA method in a search for genes overexpressed in senescent human mammary epithelial cells. mac25 had previously been cloned as a discrete gene, preferentially expressed in normal, leptomeningial cells compared with meningioma tumors. mac25 is another member of the insulin growth factor-binding protein (IGFBP) family. Insulin-like growth factors are potent mitogens for mammary epithelial cells, and the IGFBPs have been shown to modulate this mitogenic activity. We report here that mac25, unlike most IGFBPs, is down-regulated at the transcription level in mammary carcinoma cell lines, suggesting a tumor-suppressor role. The gene was mapped to chromosome 4q12. We found that mac25 accumulates in senescent cells and is up-regulated in normal, growing mammary epithelial cells by all-trans-retinoic acid or the synthetic retinoid fenretinide. These findings suggest that mac25 may be a downstream effector of retinoid chemoprevention in breast epithelial cells and that its tumor-suppressive role may involve a senescence pathway.

Immortalization of distinct human mammary epithelial cell types by human papilloma virus 16 E6 or E7.

Multiple mammary epithelial cell (MEC) types are observed both in mammary ducts in vivo and in primary cultures in vitro; however, the oncogenic potential of different cell types remains unknown. Here, we used human papilloma virus 16 E6 and E7 oncogenes, which target p53 and Rb tumor suppressor proteins, respectively, to immortalize MECs present in early or late passages of human mammary tissue-derived cultures or in milk. One MEC subtype was exclusively immortalized by E6; such cells predominated in late-passage cultures but were rare at early passages and apparently absent in milk. Surprisingly, a second cell type, present only in early-passage tissue-derived cultures, was fully immortalized by E7 alone. A third cell type, observed in tissue-derived cultures and in milk, showed a substantial extension of life span with E7 but eventually senesced. Finally, both E6 and E7 were required to fully immortalize milk-derived MECs and a large proportion of MECs in early-passage tissue-derived cultures, suggesting the presence of another discrete subpopulation. Identification of MECs with distinct susceptibilities to p53- and Rb-targeting human papillomavirus oncogenes raises the possibility that these cells may serve as precursors for different forms of breast cancer.

A Xenopus distal-less gene in transgenic mice: conserved regulation in distal limb epidermis and other sites of epithelial-mesenchymal interaction.

In this paper, we show the conserved regulation of the homeodomain gene Distal-less-3 (Dlx-3) by analyzing the expression of a promoter from the Xenopus ortholog, Xdll-2, in transgenic mice. A 470-bp frog regulatory sequence confers appropriate expression on a lacZ reporter gene in the ectodermal component of structures derived from epithelial-mesenchymal interactions. Remarkably, this includes structures absent in Xenopus, such as the hair follicle and mammary gland, suggesting that conserved regulatory elements can be used to control the formation of structures peculiar to individual species. In addition, expression of Dlx-3 in developing limbs is highest at the most distal portion. This pattern is duplicated by the Xenopus promoter, indicating that this DNA may include sequences responsive to conserved proximodistal patterning signals in the vertebrate limb.

Mutation of juxtamembrane tyrosine residue 1001 suppresses loss-of-function mutations of the met receptor in epithelial cells.

Signals transduced by the met tyrosine kinase, which is the receptor for scatter factor/hepatocyte growth factor, are of major importance for the regulation of epithelial cell motility, morphogenesis, and proliferation. We report here that different sets of tyrosine residues in the cytoplasmic domain of the met receptor affect signal transduction in epithelial cells in a positive or negative fashion: mutation of the C-terminal tyrosine residues 13-16 (Y1311, Y1347, Y1354, and Y1363) reduced or abolished ligand-induced cell motility and branching morphogenesis. In contrast, mutation of the juxtamembrane tyrosine residue 2 (Y1001) produced constitutively mobile, fibroblastoid cells. Furthermore, the gain-of-function mutation of tyrosine residue 2 suppressed the loss-of-function mutations of tyrosine residue 15 or 16. The opposite roles of the juxtamembrane and C-terminal tyrosine residues may explain the suggested dual function of the met receptor in both epithelial-mesenchymal interactions and tumor progression.