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Perturbation of the tight junction permeability barrier by occludin loop peptides activates β‐catenin/TCF/LEF‐mediated transcription
Author(s) -
Vietor Ilja,
Bader Thomas,
Paiha Karin,
Huber Lukas A
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
embo reports
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.584
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1469-3178
pISSN - 1469-221X
DOI - 10.1093/embo-reports/kve066
Subject(s) - occludin , adherens junction , tight junction , microbiology and biotechnology , claudin , catenin , beta catenin , transcription factor , chemistry , biology , immunoprecipitation , cadherin , gene , signal transduction , biochemistry , cell , wnt signaling pathway
Here we show that interference with the integrity of the transepithelial permeability barrier of mouse mammary epithelial cells by treatment with synthetic peptides, homologous to the second extracellular domain of occludin, decreased the amount of occludin protein present at tight junctions and led to the formation of multilayered, unpolarized cell clusters. In addition, transcription of the adherens junction protein β‐catenin was induced. Following accumulation of soluble β‐catenin protein, transcription by β‐catenin/TCF/LEF was increased, as revealed by transcriptional assays following transient transfection of the reporter construct. Furthermore, treatment with occludin‐II peptides up‐regulated RNA levels of the known β‐catenin/TCF/LEF downstream target gene c ‐ myc . The data presented imply a functional cross‐talk between tight and adherens junctions that possibly contributes to the stepwise transformation during oncogenesis.