Overexpression of E-cadherin on Melanoma Cells Inhibits Chemokine-promoted Invasion Involving p190RhoGAP/p120ctn-dependent Inactivation of RhoAS

• Published in: The Journal of biological chemistry Vol. 284; no. 22; pp. 15147 - 15157
• Main Authors: Molina-Ortiz, Isabel, Bartolomé, Rubén A., Hernández-Varas, Pablo, Colo, Georgina P., Teixidó, Joaquin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 29-05-2009
• Subjects: Mechanisms of Signal Transduction
• ISSN: 0021-9258; 1083-351X
• DOI: 10.1074/jbc.M807834200

Melanoma cells express the chemokine receptor CXCR4 that confers high
invasiveness upon binding to its ligand CXCL12. Melanoma cells at initial
stages of the disease show reduction or loss of E-cadherin expression, but
recovery of its expression is frequently found at advanced phases. We
overexpressed E-cadherin in the highly invasive BRO lung metastatic cell
melanoma cell line to investigate whether it could influence CXCL12-promoted
cell invasion. Overexpression of E-cadherin led to defective invasion of
melanoma cells across Matrigel and type I collagen in response to CXCL12. A
decrease in individual cell migration directionality toward the chemokine and
reduced adhesion accounted for the impaired invasion. A p190RhoGAP-dependent
inhibition of RhoA activation was responsible for the impairment in
chemokine-stimulated E-cadherin melanoma transfectant invasion. Furthermore,
we show that p190RhoGAP and p120ctn associated predominantly on the plasma
membrane of cells overexpressing E-cadherin, and that E-cadherin-bound p120ctn
contributed to RhoA inactivation by favoring p190RhoGAP-RhoA association.
These results suggest that melanoma cells at advanced stages of the disease
could have reduced metastatic potency in response to chemotactic stimuli
compared with cells lacking E-cadherin, and the results indicate that
p190RhoGAP is a central molecule controlling melanoma cell invasion.