title: Emergence of nuclear heparanase induces differentiation of human mammary cancer cells.
abstract: The study of epithelial differentiation touches upon many modern aspects of biology. The epithelium is in constant dialogue with the underlying mesenchyme to control stem cell activity, proliferation in transit-amplifying compartments, lineage commitment, terminal differentiation and, ultimately, cell death. There are spatially distinct compartments dedicated to each of these events. Recently we reported that heparanase is expressed in nucleus as well as in the cytoplasm and that nuclear heparanase seems to be related to cell differentiation. In this study, we investigated the role of nuclear heparanase in differentiation by transducing human mammary epithelial cancer cells with heparanase which was delivered specifically into nucleus. We observed that expression of nuclear heparanase allowed the cells to differentiate with the appearance of lipid droplets. This finding supports the idea that heparanase plays a novel role in epithelial cell differentiation apart from its known enzymatic function.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterological Surgery Transplant and Surgical Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine and Dentistry, Okayama University, Okayama 700-8558, Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nobuhisa
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Naomoto
authors.forename: Munenori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takaoka
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tabuchi
authors.forename: Keizou
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ookawa
authors.forename: Dai
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kitamoto
authors.forename: Esra
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gunduz
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gunduz
authors.forename: Hitoshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nagatsuka
authors.forename: Minoru
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haisa
authors.forename: Junji
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Matsuoka
authors.forename: Motowo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: Noriaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tanaka
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000201:enzymology*; D005260:Female; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D005966:Glucuronidase / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis; D014162:Transfection; D000099175:Heparanase
chemical_list: D005966:Glucuronidase; D008055:Lipids; D000099175:Heparanase