The bone morphogenetic protein antagonist gremlin 1 is overexpressed in human cancers and interacts with YWHAH protein.
BACKGROUND
Basic studies of oncogenesis have demonstrated that either the elevated production of particular oncogene proteins or the occurrence of qualitative abnormalities in oncogenes can contribute to neoplastic cellular transformation. The purpose of our study was to identify an unique gene that shows cancer-associated expression, and characterizes its function related to human carcinogenesis.


METHODS
We used the differential display (DD) RT-PCR method using normal cervical, cervical cancer, metastatic cervical tissues, and cervical cancer cell lines to identify genes overexpressed in cervical cancers and identified gremlin 1 which was overexpressed in cervical cancers. We determined expression levels of gremlin 1 using Northern blot analysis and immunohistochemical study in various types of human normal and cancer tissues. To understand the tumorigenesis pathway of identified gremlin 1 protein, we performed a yeast two-hybrid screen, GST pull down assay, and immunoprecipitation to identify gremlin 1 interacting proteins.


RESULTS
DDRT-PCR analysis revealed that gremlin 1 was overexpressed in uterine cervical cancer. We also identified a human gremlin 1 that was overexpressed in various human tumors including carcinomas of the lung, ovary, kidney, breast, colon, pancreas, and sarcoma. PIG-2-transfected HEK 293 cells exhibited growth stimulation and increased telomerase activity. Gremlin 1 interacted with homo sapiens tyrosine 3-monooxygenase/tryptophan 5-monooxygenase activation protein, eta polypeptide (14-3-3 eta; YWHAH). YWHAH protein binding site for gremlin 1 was located between residues 61-80 and gremlin 1 binding site for YWHAH was found to be located between residues 1 to 67.


CONCLUSIONS
Gremlin 1 may play an oncogenic role especially in carcinomas of the uterine cervix, lung, ovary, kidney, breast, colon, pancreas, and sarcoma. Over-expressed gremlin 1 functions by interaction with YWHAH. Therefore, Gremlin 1 and its binding protein YWHAH could be good targets for developing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies against human cancers.
Molecular Genetic Laboratory, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 137-040, Korea. nkhong1@hanmail.net
Hong
H
Namkoong
Seung Min
SM
Shin
Hyun Kee
HK
Kim
Seon-Ah
SA
Ha
Goang Won
GW
Cho
Soo Young
SY
Hur
Tae Eung
TE
Kim
Jin Woo
JW
Kim
D048948:14-3-3 Proteins / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002460:Cell Line; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D047468:Immunoprecipitation; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D008958:Models, Molecular; D011485:Protein Binding; D025941:Protein Interaction Mapping; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D014162:Transfection; D020798:Two-Hybrid System Techniques
D048948:14-3-3 Proteins; C486399:GREM1 protein, human; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; C482984:YWHAH protein, human; D005982:Glutathione Transferase; D019098:Telomerase