EGF regulates a complex pattern of gene expression and represses smooth muscle differentiation during the neurotypic conversion of the neural-crest-derived TC-1S cell line.
EGF, known to sustain CNS neuronal progenitors, also promotes a neurotypic response in the thymic neural-crest-derived TC-1S cell line. We report here the use of TC-1S cells as a model to identify the genetic programs regulated during the neurotypic response induced by EGF and to isolate 23 EGF-responsive genes. Among them 5 represent novel cDNAs, while 18 are known genes, whose regulation by EGF is associated with the mitogenic or differentiating effects of the growth factor. The repression of smooth muscle alpha-actin and SM22alpha genes by EGF and their increase by TGFbeta suggest that the TC-1S line includes neural crest multipotent cells whose smooth muscle differentiation is repressed upon EGF treatment and stimulated by TGFbeta. Therefore, we identified a complex pattern of EGF-target genes and propose EGF as a novel signal able to recruit postmigratory neural-crest-derived cells along proliferation and cell lineage choice pathways.
Department of Experimental Medicine and Pathology, University La Sapienza, Viale Regina Elena, 324, Rome, 00161, Italy.
G
G
Giannini
E
E
Alesse
L
L
Di Marcotullio
F
F
Zazzeroni
R
R
Gallo
M
M
Zani
L
L
Frati
I
I
Screpanti
A
A
Gulino
D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D002460:Cell Line; D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D051379:Mice; D009130:Muscle, Smooth / Q000166:cytology*; D009432:Neural Crest / Q000166:cytology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology*
D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor