title: Impaired formation of homotypic cell-in-cell structures in human tumor cells lacking alpha-catenin expression.
abstract: Although cell-in-cell structures (CICs) could be detected in a wide range of human tumors, homotypic CICs formed between tumor cells occur at low rate for most of them. We recently reported that tumor cells lacking expression of E- and P-cadherin were incapable of forming homotypic CICs by entosis, and re-expression of E- or P-cadherin was sufficient to induce CICs formation in these tumor cells. In this work, we found that homotypic CICs formation was impaired in some tumor cells expressing high level of E-cadherin due to loss expression of alpha-catenin (α-catenin), a molecular linker between cadherin-mediated adherens junctions and F-actin. Expression of α-catenin in these tumor cells restored cell-cell adhesion and promoted CICs formation in a ROCK kinase-dependent way. Thus, our work identified α-catenin as another molecule in addition to E- and P-cadherin that were targeted to inactivate homotypic CICs formation in human tumor cells.
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Molecular Immunology, School of Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, P. R. China [2] Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Manna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: 1] Institute of Molecular Immunology, School of Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, P. R. China [2] Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiangkai
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ning
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ang
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: 1] Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China [2] Department of Oncology, Beijing Shijitan Hospital of Capital Medical University, 10 TIEYI Road, Beijing 100038, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Life Sciences, the State Key Laboratory of Kidney; the Key Laboratory of Normal Aging &Geriatric, the Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Life Sciences, the State Key Laboratory of Kidney; the Key Laboratory of Normal Aging &Geriatric, the Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Changxi
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, Affiliated Hospital of Academy of Military Medical Science, 8 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Kaitao
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Stomatology, Affiliated Hospital of Academy of Military Medical Science, 8 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Sanchun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lan
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qiwei
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shichong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Life Sciences, the State Key Laboratory of Kidney; the Key Laboratory of Normal Aging &Geriatric, the Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoning
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhaolie
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Molecular Immunology, School of Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: 1] Laboratory of Cell Engineering, Institute of Biotechnology, 20 Dongda Street, Beijing 100071, P. R. China [2] National Key Laboratory of Medical Immunology and Institute of Immunology, Second Military Medical University, 800 Xiangyin Road, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000199:Actins / Q000378:metabolism; D022005:Adherens Junctions / Q000378:metabolism; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D051178:alpha Catenin / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D000199:Actins; D051178:alpha Catenin