Antiperlecan antibodies are novel accelerators of immune-mediated vascular injury.

Acute vascular rejection (AVR) is characterized by immune-mediated vascular injury and heightened endothelial cell (EC) apoptosis. We reported previously that apoptotic ECs release a bioactive C-terminal fragment of perlecan referred to as LG3. Here, we tested the possibility that LG3 behaves as a neoantigen, fuelling the production of anti-LG3 antibodies of potential importance in regulating allograft vascular injury. We performed a case-control study in which we compared anti-LG3 IgG titers in kidney transplant recipients with AVR (n=15) versus those with acute tubulo-interstitial rejection (ATIR) (n=15) or stable graft function (n=30). Patients who experienced AVR had elevated anti-LG3 titers pre and posttransplantation compared to subjects with ATIR or stable graft function (p<0.05 for both mediators). Elevated pretransplant anti-LG3 titers (OR: 4.62, 95% CI: 1.08-19.72) and pretransplant donor-specific antibodies (DSA) (OR 4.79, 95% CI: 1.03-22.19) were both independently associated with AVR. To address the functional role of anti-LG3 antibodies in AVR, we turned to passive transfer of anti-LG3 antibodies in an animal model of vascular rejection based on orthotopic aortic transplantation between fully MHC-mismatched mice. Neointima formation, C4d deposition and allograft inflammation were significantly increased in recipients of an ischemic aortic allograft passively transferred with anti-LG3 antibodies. Collectively, these data identify anti-LG3 antibodies as novel accelerators of immune-mediated vascular injury and obliterative remodeling.

Growth and differentiation of C2 myogenic cells are dependent on serum response factor.

In order to study to what extent and at which stage serum response factor (SRF) is indispensable for myogenesis, we stably transfected C2 myogenic cells with, successively, a glucocorticoid receptor expression vector and a construct allowing for the expression of an SRF antisense RNA under the direction of the mouse mammary tumor virus long terminal repeat. In the clones obtained, SRF synthesis is reversibly down-regulated by induction of SRF antisense RNA expression by dexamethasone, whose effect is antagonized by the anti-hormone RU486. Two kinds of proliferation and differentiation patterns have been obtained in the resulting clones. Some clones with a high level of constitutive SRF antisense RNA expression are unable to differentiate into myotubes; their growth can be blocked by further induction of SRF antisense RNA expression by dexamethasone. Other clones are able to differentiate and are able to synthesize SRF, MyoD, myogenin, and myosin heavy chain at confluency. When SRF antisense RNA expression is induced in proliferating myoblasts by dexamethasone treatment, cell growth is blocked and cyclin A concentration drops. When SRF antisense RNA synthesis is induced in arrested confluent myoblasts cultured in a differentiation medium, cell fusion is blocked and synthesis of not only SRF but also MyoD, myogenin, and myosin heavy chain is inhibited. Our results show, therefore, that SRF synthesis is indispensable for both myoblast proliferation and myogenic differentiation.

Expression and activity of serum response factor is required for expression of the muscle-determining factor MyoD in both dividing and differentiating mouse C2C12 myoblasts.

To understand the mechanism by which the serum response factor (SRF) is involved in the process of skeletal muscle differentiation, we have assessed the effect of inhibiting SRF activity or synthesis on the expression of the muscle-determining factor MyoD. Inhibition of SRF activity in mouse myogenic C2C12 cells through microinjection of either the SRE oligonucleotide (which acts by displacing SRF proteins from the endogenous SRE sequences), purified SRF-DB (a 30-kDa portion of SRF containing the DNA-binding domain of SRF, which acts as a dominant negative mutant in vivo), or purified anti-SRF antibodies rapidly prevents the expression of MyoD. Moreover, the rapid shutdown of MyoD expression after in vivo inhibition of SRF activity is observed not only in proliferating myoblasts but also in myoblasts cultured under differentiating conditions. Additionally, by using a cellular system expressing a glucocorticoid-inducible antisense-SRF (from aa 74 to 244) we have shown that blocking SRF expression by dexamethasone induction of antisense SRF results in the lack of MyoD expression as probed by both immunofluorescence and Northern blot analysis. Taken together these data demonstrate that SRF expression and activity are required for the expression of the muscle-determining factor MyoD.

SSX and the synovial-sarcoma-specific chimaeric protein SYT-SSX co-localize with the human Polycomb group complex.

Chromosome translocation t(X;18)(p11.2;q11.2) is unique to synovial sarcomas and results in an 'in frame' fusion of the SYT gene with the SSX1 or closely-related SSX2 gene. Wild-type SYT and SSX proteins, and the SYT-SSX chimaeric proteins, can modulate transcription in gene reporter assays. To help elucidate the role of these proteins in cell function and neoplasia we have performed immunolabelling experiments to determine their subcellular localization in three cell types. Transient expression of epitope-tagged proteins produced distinctive nuclear staining patterns. The punctate staining of SYT and SYT-SSX proteins showed some similarities. We immunolabelled a series of endogenous nuclear antigens and excluded the SYT and SYT-SSX focal staining from association with these domains (e.g. sites of active transcription, snRNPs). In further experiments we immunolabelled the Polycomb group (PcG) proteins RING1 or BMI-1 and showed that SSX and SYT-SSX proteins, but not SYT, co-localized with these markers. Consistent with this we show that SSX and SYT-SSX associate with chromatin, and also associate with condensed chromatin at metaphase. Noteably, SSX produced a dense signal over the surface of metaphase chromosomes whereas SYT-SSX produced discrete focal staining. Our data indicate that SSX and SYT-SSX proteins are recruited to nuclear domains occupied by PcG complexes, and this provides us with a new insight into the possible function of wild-type SSX and the mechanism by which the aberrant SYT-SSX protein might disrupt fundamental mechanisms controlling cell division and cell fate.

A KRAB-related domain and a novel transcription repression domain in proteins encoded by SSX genes that are disrupted in human sarcomas.

SSX genes show extensive nucleotide sequence conservation but little is known of their function. Disruption of SSX1 or SSX2, by chromosome translocation and 'in-frame' fusion to SYT, is a consistent feature of synovial sarcomas. The resulting SYT-SSX1/SSX2 proteins are activators of transcription; transactivation function is located in SYT. Unrearranged SSX1 can repress transcription, and this has been attributed to a putative Krüppel associated box (KRAB) repression domain at the N-terminus. Here we isolated SSX-KRAB domains to specifically measure repression activity, using a previously characterized KOX1-KRAB domain as a control. In our repressor assay SSX1- and SSX2-KRAB domains down-modulated the transactivation of a reporter gene by threefold, compared with 83-fold repression achieved by KOX1-KRAB in the assay. Yeast two-hybrid analysis showed that SSX1-KRAB, unlike KOX1-KRAB, fails to interact with the KRAB co-repressor TIF1beta. These results raise questions about the evolutionary and functional relationship of SSX-KRAB and typical KRAB domains of Krüppel zinc finger genes. We found that full-length SSX1 showed potent (74-fold) repression in our repressor assay, indicating the existence of a repression domain distinct from SSX-KRAB. By assaying deletion constructs of SSX1 we localized repression activity to 33 amino acids at the C-terminus. This novel domain is conserved between SSX family members, and, unlike the KRAB-related domain, is retained on fusion with SYT. This has important implications in understanding the mechanism by which the SYT-SSX fusion protein could contribute to neoplasia.

Identification of novel oestrogen receptor target genes in human ZR75-1 breast cancer cells by expression profiling.

Oligonucleotide microarrays were used to analyse gene expression profiles in human ZR75-1 breast cancer cells in the presence of 17beta-oestradiol and oestrogen antagonists. Differential gene expression of a number of genes was confirmed by quantitative RNA analysis. In addition to known oestrogen-responsive genes, an appreciable number of novel targets were identified, including growth factors and components of the cell cycle, adhesion molecules, enzymes, signalling molecules and transcription factors. The most pronounced oestrogen-sensitive gene was that for the cytochrome P450-IIB enzyme, involved in metabolising steroids and xenobiotics, which was increased 100-fold over a 24 h period. It is a direct target gene for oestrogens, because its expression was increased in the presence of cyclohexamide. In contrast, expression of cytochrome P450-IIB was not detected in human MCF7 breast cancer cells. Expressions of the cationic amino acid transporter E16, gap junction protein and insulin-like growth factor binding protein 4 were also markedly increased by oestrogens, but the kinetics of induction varied according to the target gene. With the exception of the cationic amino acid transporter E16 and the insulin-like growth factor binding protein 4, the expression of the majority of the genes was unaffected by antioestrogen treatment. Further analysis of this set of markers will provide alternative approaches to the investigation of the mitogenicity of oestrogens in breast cancer cells.

The serum response factor (SRF) is needed for muscle-specific activation of CArG boxes.

CArG boxes, whose consensus sequence is CC(A/T)6GG, are involved in two very different types of transcriptional responses: response of immediate early genes to serum, mediated by so-called Serum Response Elements (SRE), and transcriptional activation of muscle-specific genes during muscle differentiation. Although previous studies have shown that the Serum Response Factor (SRF) binds to muscular CArG boxes, the role of such a binding in muscle-specific activation of CArG box-dependent genes was not directly demonstrated. Here, by transient co-transfection experiments, we demonstrate that intact SRF is required for muscle-specific transcriptional activation through CArG boxes.

Activation of gene expression via CArG boxes during myogenic differentiation.

We have studied gene activation via CArG boxes in the context of myogenesis. The proximal CArG box of the human cardiac actin gene (HCA1) stimulates transcription from the herpes simplex virus thymidine kinase (TK) promoter in a tissue-specific fashion. Thus in transient transfection assays, when the expression of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase (CAT) from p(HCA1)4 TKCAT is compared to that derived from p(M1)4 TKCAT which contains an inactive mutated version (M1) of the HCA1 element, high levels of expression are seen in C2 mouse myoblasts and myotubes, and in the T4 myoblast cell line derived from the C3H10T1/2 cell line by 5-azacytidine treatment, whereas only low levels of expression are seen in the mouse L fibroblast cell line. The parental C3H10T1/2 cell line shows intermediate levels of expression. A similar situation is seen in stably transfected cell lines. Gene activation via CArG boxes was also analyzed in the course of myogenic conversion of C3H10T1/2 cells treated with 5-azacytidine. Our results indicate that activation of the CAT gene from the HCA1 element is slightly posterior to the appearance of the first MyoD1 and myogenin transcripts, concomitant with the appearance of cardiac alpha-actin transcripts, but clearly precedes the accumulation of myosin light-chain 1a transcripts and the appearance of troponin T-positive cells. These results further establish that CArG boxes can be seen as muscle-specific cis-acting regulatory element prior to terminal differentiation.

Muscle-specific transcriptional activation by CArG box requires either homophilic or heterophilic interactions of the CArG box binding factors.

CArG boxes (CC(A/T)6GG sequences) are present in various promoters and are able to confer two different types of transcriptional responsiveness: serum inducibility and muscle-specific activation. Inserted upstream from the ubiquitous HSV thymidine kinase promoter, multimerized HCA1 boxes (human cardiac alpha-actin proximal CArG box) behave as strong muscle-specific activating elements. Transient expression assay was used to determine whether the muscle-specific transcriptional activation by the CArG boxes depends on the presence in the vicinity of other specific cis-acting DNA elements. Our results show that no specific association between different regulatory binding sites is required for the myogenic activity of a CArG box and that CArG elements are able to stimulate transcription in myogenic cells through either homophilic or heterophilic interactions of the CArG box binding factors.