Expression of calcyclin in human melanoma cell lines correlates with metastatic behavior in nude mice

• Published in: Cancer research (Chicago, Ill.) Vol. 52; no. 5; pp. 1291 - 1296
• Main Authors: WETERMAN, M. A. J, STOOPEN, G. M, VAN MUIJEN, G. N. P, KUZNICKI, J, RUITER, D. J, BLOEMERS, H. P. J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA American Association for Cancer Research 01.03.1992
• Subjects: Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Calcium-Binding Proteins - genetics; Calcium-Binding Proteins - metabolism; Cell Cycle Proteins; Dermatology; DNA - isolation & purification; Gene Amplification; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Melanoma - metabolism; Melanoma - pathology; Melanoma - secondary; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Neoplasm Metastasis; RNA, Messenger - analysis; S100 Calcium Binding Protein A6; S100 Proteins; Skin Neoplasms - metabolism; Skin Neoplasms - pathology; Tumors of the skin and soft tissue. Premalignant lesions; Human; Skin disease; Calcium; Rodentia; Tumorigenicity; Malignant tumor; Potential; Gene expression; In vitro; In vivo; Binding protein; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Mouse; Animal; Established cell line; Malignant melanoma; Metastatic; Tumor cell
• ISSN: 0008-5472; 1538-7445

Since our aim was to isolate and identify new progression markers of human cutaneous melanoma, we applied the differential hybridization technique, in which we compared the gene expression in two subsequent stages of this progression. Tumors in nude mice arising after transplantation and serial passage in vivo of either the horizontally and early vertically growing part or the advanced vertically growing part of a primary melanoma of the same patient were used for this assay. This resulted in the isolation of a number of complementary DNA clones that were differentially expressed. Based on the marked difference in expression, one of them, designated pMW1, was chosen for further characterization and appeared to be coding for calcyclin, a cell cycle-regulated protein, belonging to a family of small calcium-binding proteins. Calcyclin expression was elevated in high-metastatic human melanoma cell lines in nude mice compared to low-metastatic ones. Immunoprecipitation of calcyclin showed that the differential expression at the RNA level is also reflected at the protein level. These findings show that expression of calcyclin is related to metastasis of human melanoma cell lines in nude mice and emphasize the role of this family of calcium-binding proteins in neoplastic progression as was reported for the mouse homologue of calcyclin and other members of the same family.