Expressional and functional studies of CKLF1 during dendritic cell maturation.

Chemokine-like factor 1 (CKLF1) was the first member of the CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain containing member (CMTM) family to be discovered. Its expression level is increased clearly in peripheral blood lymphocytes upon phytohemagglutinin stimulation, but little is known about the expression and function of CKLF1 in dendritic cells (DCs), which are the most potent antigen-presenting cells. In the present study, we showed that CKLF1 was highly expressed in monocytes. During differentiation from monocytes to immature DCs, CKLF1 was increased dramatically on day 2 and then decreased from day 3 to 5. Upon maturation with different stimuli, CKLF1 was down-regulated. Two peptides of CKLF1, C19 and C27, stimulated the effect of immature DCs (imDCs) on T-cell proliferation and IFN-gamma production. Further study on DC maturation showed that C19 and C27 up-regulated HLA-DR expression and IL-12 secretion, with no obvious effects on CD80, CD83 or CD86. Thus, CKLF1-C19 and -C27 can stimulate antigen-presenting capability of imDCs.

CMTM5-v1 induces apoptosis in cervical carcinoma cells.

CMTM5 (CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain-containing member 5) exhibits tumor inhibition activity with frequent epigenetic inactivation in various tumor cell lines including cervical carcinoma (CC) cells. In this paper, we examined the function of CMTM5-v1 (the primary RNA splicing form) in both HeLa and SiHa cells. Overexpression of CMTM5-v1 in both cells can induce apoptosis, but the effects are more obvious in SiHa than that in HeLa. In SiHa cells, restoration of CMTM5-v1 caused disruption of mitochondrial transmembrane potential, release of cytochrome c, activation of caspase3 and cleavage of PARP. General caspase inhibitor almost prevented apoptosis of SiHa cells, suggesting that CMTM5-v1 induces apoptosis mainly through caspase-dependent pathway. These findings verify that CMTM5-v1 inhibits the growth of CC cell lines via inducing apoptosis.

CMTM5 induces apoptosis of pancreatic cancer cells and has synergistic effects with TNF-alpha.

Our previous data show that CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain-containing member 5 (CMTM5) is a potential tumor suppressor gene, but its function in pancreatic cancer is unknown. Herein we first report that CMTM5 is also absent in pancreatic cancer cell lines with promoter methylation. Compared with normal pancreatic tissues, CMTM5 is significantly decreased in cancer tissues. Restoration of CMTM5-v1 not only induces MIA PaCa-2 cell apoptosis with activation of caspase 3, 8 and 9, but also has synergistic effects with TNF-alpha. Thus, CMTM5 may play a role in the pancreatic cancer.

CMTM5 exhibits tumor suppressor activities and is frequently silenced by methylation in carcinoma cell lines.

PURPOSE: CMTM5 (CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain containing member 5) is located at 14q11.2, a locus associated with multiple cancers. It has six RNA splicing variants with CMTM5-v1 as the major one. We explored its expression pattern in normal tissues and tumor cell lines, as well as its functions in carcinoma cells. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We evaluated CMTM5 expression by semiquantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) in normal tissues and carcinoma cell lines of cervical, breast, nasopharyngeal, lung, hepatocellular, esophageal, gastric, colon, and prostate. We further examined CMTM5 promoter methylation in these cell lines. We also analyzed CMTM5 expression after 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine treatment and genetic demethylation and the functional consequences of restoring CMTM5 in HeLa and PC-3 cells. RESULTS: CMTM5-v1 is broadly expressed in human normal adult and fetal tissues, but undetectable or down-regulated in most carcinoma cell lines. Its promoter methylation was detected in virtually all the silenced or down-regulated cell lines. The silencing of CMTM5 could be reversed by pharmacologic demethylation or genetic double-knockout of DNMT1 and DNMT3B, indicating methylation-mediated mechanism. Restoration of CMTM5-v1 suppressed carcinoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that CMTM5 exhibits tumor suppressor activities, but with frequent epigenetic inactivation in carcinoma cell lines.

CMTM5-v1, a four-transmembrane protein, presents a secreted form released via a vesicle-mediated secretory pathway.

The CKLF-like MARVEL transmembrane domain-containing family (CMTM) is a novel family of proteins linking classical chemokines and the transmembrane 4 superfamily (TM4SF). Our earlier studies indicated several CMTM members (such as CKLF1 and CMTM2) have a secreted form. This is the first report of the secreted form of CMTM5-v1, the major RNA splicing form of CMTM5, which is produced as small vesicles (100 nm diameter) and floats at a peak density of 1.19 g/ml on continuous sucrose gradients. CMTM5-v1 has no obvious co-localization with CD63 or Golgi complex. In addition, brefeldin A but not wortmannin can inhibit the secretion of CMTM5-v1. Our results suggest that CMTM5-v1 might be secreted via a different vesicle-mediated secretory pathway, which will be helpful for the studies of vesicle-mediated secretion and MARVEL domain-containing proteins.

[Preparation, purification and characterization of the polyclonal antibody against human CMTM4].

AIM: To prepare, purify and characterize the polyclonal antibodies against CMTM4. METHODS: Four polypeptides named peptide 1, 2, 3, and 4 were synthesized based on the bioinformatics analysis of the three isoforms of CMTM4, CMTM4-v1, -v2, and -v3, and coupled with keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) for immunization. Among them, peptide 1, 2, and 3, common for CMTM4-v1, v2, and v3, were mixed for immunization to prepare the antibody which can recognize all of the three isoforms (Ab1); while peptide 4, which is specific for CMTM4-v1, was injected separately into New Zealand rabbits to prepare the antibody specifically targeting CMTM4-v1 (Ab2). ELISA assay was used to detect the titers of the antibodies. After purification by immunoaffinity chromatography, Ab1 and Ab2 were identified by Western blot and immunohistochemistry assays. RESULTS: The titers of Ab1 and Ab2 were 1:10(5) and 1:10(6), respectively. Western blot confirmed their high specificity. Ab1 could also be used for immunohistochemistry analysis, but Ab2 could not. Immunohistochemistry analysis with Ab1 demonstrated the high expression level of CMTM4 in human testis, which was consistent with the previous result of Northern blot. Moreover, Western blot and immunohistochemistry analysis verified that Ab1 can also recognize mouse Cmtm4. CONCLUSION: Two specific antibodies against human CMTM4 were obtained, which will be helpful for further study.