ABSTRACT
The newly identified Src homology and collagen (Shc) family member ShcD was observed to be upregulated in 50% of vertical growth phase and metastatic melanomas. The aim of the present study was to investigate the mechanism by which ShcD mediates cell motility. 293 cell lines were altered to stably express GFP (GF) or GFPShcD (G5). Treatment of the cells with transforming growth factor (TGF)ß2 promoted extracellular signalregulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation and, to a lesser extent, Smad2 phosphorylation in GFPShcDexpressing cells but not in GFPoverexpressing cells. GFPShcDexpressing cells exhibited upregulated expression of certain epithelialmesenchymal transitionrelated genes, such as snail family transcriptional repressor 1 and SLUG, than GFPexpressing cells. Higher levels of ERK were found in the nuclear fraction of GFPShcDexpressing cells than that of GFPexpressing cells. Overall, GFPShcDexpressing cells demonstrated enhanced migration compared with GFPexpressing cells. A slight increase in cell migration was observed in both cell lines (GF and G5) when the cells were allowed to migrate towards conditioned medium derived from TGFß2treated GFPShcD expressing cells. Collectively, ShcD upregulation was proposed to induce cell migration by affecting the expression of certain epithelialmesenchymal transitionrelated genes. Thus, our findings may improve understanding of the role of ShcD in cell migration.