The transcriptional programme of contact‐inhibition

Proliferation of non‐transformed cells is regulated by cell–cell contacts, which are referred to as contact‐inhibition. Vice versa, transformed cells are characterised by a loss of contact‐inhibition. Despite its generally accepted importance for cell‐cycle control, little is known about the intracellular signalling pathways involved in contact‐inhibition. Unravelling the molecular mechanisms of contact‐inhibition and its loss during tumourigenesis will be an important step towards the identification of novel target genes in tumour diagnosis and treatment. To better understand the underlying molecular mechanisms we identified the transcriptional programme of contact‐inhibition in NIH3T3 fibroblast using high‐density microarrays. Setting the cut off: ≥1.5‐fold, P  ≤ 0.05, 853 genes and 73 cDNA sequences were differentially expressed in confluent compared to exponentially growing cultures. Importing these data into GenMAPP software revealed a comprehensive list of cell‐cycle regulatory genes mediating G0/G1 arrest, which was confirmed by RT‐PCR and Western blot. In a narrow analysis (cut off: ≥2‐fold, P  ≤ 0.002), we found 110 transcripts to be differentially expressed representing 107 genes and 3 cDNA sequences involved, for example, in proliferation, signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, cell adhesion and communication. Interestingly, the majority of genes was upregulated indicating that contact‐inhibition is not a passive state, but actively induced. Furthermore, we confirmed differential expression of eight genes by semi‐quantitative RT‐PCR and identified the potential tumour suppressor transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β)‐1‐induced clone 22 (TSC‐22; tgfb1i4) as a novel protein to be induced in contact‐inhibited cells. J. Cell. Biochem. 110: 1234–1243, 2010. Published 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.