title: Retinoic acid hydroxylase (CYP26) is a key enzyme in neuronal differentiation of embryonal carcinoma cells.
abstract: Besides nuclear retinoid receptors and cellular retinoid binding proteins also retinoic acid (RA)-synthesizing enzymes (using all-trans-retinal as substrate) and RA-catabolizing enzymes (producing hydroxylated products) may explain the specific effects of retinoids. In the past we have established an active role for 4-hydroxy-RA and 4-oxo-RA, which originally were considered to be inactive retinoids, but in fact are highly active modulators of positional specification in Xenopus development. Here we present evidence for a specific role of hydroxylated RA metabolites in the onset of neuronal differentiation. 4-Hydroxy- and 18-hydroxy-RA are products of the hydroxylation of RA by a novel cytochrome P450 (CYP)-type of enzyme, CYP26, expression of which is rapidly induced by RA. P19 embryonal carcinoma (EC) cell lines stably expressing hCYP26 undergo extensive and rapid neuronal differentiation in monolayer at already low concentrations of RA, while normally P19 cells under these conditions differentiate only in endoderm-like cells. Our results indicate that the effects on growth inhibition and RARbeta transactivation of P19 EC cells are mediated directly by RA, while the onset of neuronal differentiation and the subsequent expression of neuronal markers is mediated by hCYP26 via the conversion of RA to its hydroxylated products.
authors.affiliation: Hubrecht Laboratory, Netherlands Institute for Developmental Biology, Uppsalalaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CT, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sonneveld
authors.forename: C E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: van den Brink
authors.forename: L G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Tertoolen
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van der Burg
authors.forename: P T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: van der Saag
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D018236:Carcinoma, Embryonal / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000502:physiology; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / Q000502:physiology*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology; D000072516:Retinoic Acid 4-Hydroxylase; D014162:Transfection; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; D000072516:Retinoic Acid 4-Hydroxylase