| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Short Communications |
From the Institute of Hematology,*
the Department of
Pathology,
and the Institute of Pediatric
Oncology,
Chaim Sheba Medical Center,
Tel-Hashomer; the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University,
Tel-Aviv; and the Department of Molecular Cell
Biology,
Weizmann Institute of Science,
Rehovot, Israel
Plakoglobin and its homologue ß-catenin are cytoplasmic proteins that mediate adhesive functions by interacting with cadherin receptors and signaling activities by interacting with transcription factors. It has been suggested that plakoglobin can suppress tumorigenicity whereas ß-catenin can act as an oncogene. We investigated the correlation between the expression pattern of N-cadherin, ß-catenin, and plakoglobin and tumor behavior in primary tumors of 20 neuroblastoma patients of all stages and in 11 human neuroblastoma cell lines. N-cadherin and ß-catenin were detected in 9 of 11 and 11 of 11 cell lines, respectively, whereas plakoglobin was undetectable or severely reduced in 6 of 11 cell lines. Tumor cells from 16 of 20 patients expressed N-cadherin and 20 of 20 patients expressed ß-catenin at levels similar to those of normal ganglion cells. Plakoglobin was undetectable in 9 of 20 tumors. Plakoglobin deficiency in the primary tumors was significantly associated with adverse clinical outcome. Five of the patients with plakoglobin-negative tumors died whereas four patients are alive without evident disease. In contrast, all patients with plakoglobin-positive tumors are alive; 2 of 11 are alive with the disease and 9 of 11 are alive without evident disease. These results suggest that down-regulation of plakoglobin may be of prognostic value for neuroblastoma patients aspredictor of poor outcome.
This article has been cited by other articles:
 |
|
 |
|
  T. Gastaldi, P. Bonvini, F. Sartori, A. Marrone, A. Iolascon, and A. Rosolen Plakoglobin is differentially expressed in alveolar and embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma and is regulated by DNA methylation and histone acetylation Carcinogenesis, September 1, 2006; 27(9): 1758 - 1767. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 K. S.M. Smalley, P. Brafford, N. K. Haass, J. M. Brandner, E. Brown, and M. Herlyn Up-Regulated Expression of Zonula Occludens Protein-1 in Human Melanoma Associates with N-Cadherin and Contributes to Invasion and Adhesion Am. J. Pathol., May 1, 2005; 166(5): 1541 - 1554. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 T. Yin, S. Getsios, R. Caldelari, A. P. Kowalczyk, E. J. Muller, J. C. R. Jones, and K. J. Green Plakoglobin suppresses keratinocyte motility through both cell-cell adhesion-dependent and -independent mechanisms PNAS, April 12, 2005; 102(15): 5420 - 5425. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Mukhina, H. C. Mertani, K. Guo, K.-O. Lee, P. D. Gluckman, and P. E. Lobie From The Cover: Phenotypic conversion of human mammary carcinoma cells by autocrine human growth hormone PNAS, October 19, 2004; 101(42): 15166 - 15171. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. Shtutman, J. Zhurinsky, M. Oren, E. Levina, and A. Ben-Ze'ev PML Is a Target Gene of {beta}-Catenin and Plakoglobin, and Coactivates {beta}-Catenin-mediated Transcription Cancer Res., October 15, 2002; 62(20): 5947 - 5954. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. Kofron, J. Heasman, S. A. Lang, and C. C. Wylie Plakoglobin is required for maintenance of the cortical actin skeleton in early Xenopus embryos and for cdc42-mediated wound healing J. Cell Biol., August 19, 2002; 158(4): 695 - 708. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
