Cadherins and catenins in breast cancer.

Recent studies show that cadherins and catenins are hormonally regulated and carry out physiological roles during mammary development but have pathological effects when deregulated. E-cadherin expression is irreversibly lost in invasive lobular breast cancer (ILC). Animal models of ILC provide mechanistic insight, confirming that E-cadherin serves as both a tumor suppressor and an invasion suppressor in ILC. Ductal breast cancer involves complex, reversible, epigenetic modulation of multiple cadherins. Transcriptional regulators of E-cadherin have been identified that induce epithelial-to-mesenchymal transitions. Catenins are lost or mislocalized in tumors lacking cadherins. However, beta-catenin signaling is upregulated by numerous pathways in >50% of breast tumors and animal models suggest its oncogenic function in breast relates to its role in mammary progenitor cell expansion.

Beta-catenin and cyclin D1: connecting development to breast cancer.

Beta-catenin and cyclin D1 have attracted considerable attention due to their proto-oncogenic roles in human cancer. The finding of cyclin D1 as a direct target gene of beta-catenin in colon cancer cells led to the assumption that cyclin D1 upregulation is pivotal to beta-catenin's oncogenicity. Our recent paper shows that this is not the case; cyclin D1 dampens the oncogenicity of activated beta-catenin (MMTV-DN89beta-catenin). The relationships and dependencies of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 point to distinct, essential and sequential roles during alveologenesis. These results support the concept that both beta-catenin's and cyclin D1's actions are more sophisticated than simple acceleration of the cell cycle clock. These proteins are employed at critical junctures involving cell fate decisions that we speculate require specific types of cell cycle to traverse.

Plasma membrane components of adherens junctions (Review).

This review focuses on the three known plasma membrane components of adherens junctions: E-cadherin, nectin-2 and vezatin. The structures of these three components are discussed, with particular emphasis on the molecular mechanisms by which E-cadherin and nectin-2 promote cell adhesion.

Dissecting the roles of beta-catenin and cyclin D1 during mammary development and neoplasia.

A considerable body of circumstantial data suggests that cyclin D1 is an attractive candidate to mediate the effects of beta-catenin in mammary tissue. To test the functional significance of these correlative findings, we investigated the genetic interaction between transcriptionally active beta-catenin (DeltaN89beta-catenin) and its target gene cyclin D1 in the mouse mammary gland during pubertal development, pregnancy, and tumorigenesis. Our data demonstrate that cyclin D1 is dispensable for the DeltaN89beta-catenin-stimulated initiation of alveologenesis in virgin females, for the de novo induction of alveoli in males, and for the formation of tumors. Indeed, lack of cyclin D1 accentuates and enhances these hyperplastic and tumorigenic DeltaN89beta-catenin phenotypes. Although alveologenesis is initiated by DeltaN89beta-catenin in a cyclin D1-independent fashion, up-regulation of cyclin D1 occurs in DeltaN89beta-catenin mice and its expression remains essential for the completion of alveolar development during the later stages of pregnancy. Thus, alveologenesis is a two-step process, and cyclin D1 activity during late alveologenesis cannot be replaced by the activity of other beta-catenin target genes that successfully drive proliferation at earlier stages.