Isabelle Cohen

Altered proteoglycan gene expression and the tumor stroma

Tumor stroma is a specialized form of tissue that is associated with epithelial neoplasms. Recent evidence indicates that significant changes in proteoglycan content occur in the tumor stroma and that these alterations could support tumor progression and invasion as well as tumor growth. Our main hypothesis is that the generation of tumor stroma is under direct control of the neoplastic cells and that, via a feedback loop, altered proteoglycan gene expression would influence the behavior of tumor cells. In this review, we will focus primarily on the work from our laboratory related to the altered expression of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan and its role in tumor development and progression. The connective tissue stroma of human colon cancer is enriched in chondroitin sulfate and the stromal cell elements, primarily colon fibroblasts and smooth muscle cells, are responsible for this biosynthetic increase. These changes can be reproduced in vitro by using either tumor metabolites or co-cultures of human colon carcinoma cells and colon mesenchymal cells. The levels of decorin, a leucine-rich proteoglycan involved in the regulation of matrix assembly and cell proliferation, are markedly elevated in the stroma of colon carcinoma. These changes correlate with a marked increase in decorin mRNA levels and a concurrent hypomethylation of decorin gene, a DNA alteration associated with enhanced gene expression. Elucidation of decorin gene structure has revealed an unexpected degree of complexity in the 5′ untranslated region of the gene with two leader exons that are alternatively spliced to the second coding exon. Furthermore, a transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β)-negative element is present in the promoter region of decorin gene. This regulatory domain is likely to be implicated in the silencing of decorin gene by TGF-β and may contribute to the regulation of this matrix gene in the tumor stroma.

Increased Mitochondrial Fatty Acid Oxidation Is Sufficient to Protect Skeletal Muscle Cells from Palmitate-induced Apoptosis

The mechanisms underlying the protective effect of monounsaturated fatty acids (e.g. oleate) against the lipotoxic action of saturated fatty acids (e.g. palmitate) in skeletal muscle cells remain poorly understood. This study aimed to examine the role of mitochondrial long-chain fatty acid (LCFA) oxidation in mediating oleates protective effect against palmitate-induced lipotoxicity. CPT1 (carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1), which is the key regulatory enzyme of mitochondrial LCFA oxidation, is inhibited by malonyl-CoA, an intermediate of lipogenesis. We showed that expression of a mutant form of CPT1 (CPT1mt), which is active but insensitive to malonyl-CoA inhibition, in C2C12 myotubes led to increased LCFA oxidation flux even in the presence of high concentrations of glucose and insulin. Furthermore, similar to preincubation with oleate, CPT1mt expression protected muscle cells from palmitate-induced apoptosis and insulin resistance by decreasing the content of deleterious palmitate derivates (i.e. diacylglycerols and ceramides). Oleate preincubation exerted its protective effect by two mechanisms: (i) in contrast to CPT1mt expression, oleate preincubation increased the channeling of palmitate toward triglycerides, as a result of enhanced diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 expression, and (ii) oleate preincubation promoted palmitate oxidation through increasing CPT1 expression and modulating the activities of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and AMP-activated protein kinase. In conclusion, we demonstrated that targeting mitochondrial LCFA oxidation via CPT1mt expression leads to the same protective effect as oleate preincubation, providing strong evidence that redirecting palmitate metabolism toward oxidation is sufficient to protect against palmitate-induced lipotoxicity.

THE PROTEOGLYCAN PERLECAN IS EXPRESSED IN THE ERYTHROLEUKEMIA CELL LINE K562 AND IS UPREGULATED BY SODIUM BUTYRATE AND PHORBOL ESTER

Perlecan is a modular heparan sulfate proteoglycan that harbors five domains with homology to the low density lipoprotein receptor, epidermal growth factor, laminin and neural cell adhesion molecule. Using a monoclonal antibody directed against the laminin-like domain of perlecan, we have recently shown that perlecan is widely expressed in all lymphoreticular systems. To investigate further this observation we have studied the expression of perlecan in two human leukemic cell lines. Using reverse transcriptase-PCR, ribonuclease protection assay, and metabolic labeling we detected significant perlecan expression in the multipotential cell line K562, originally derived from a patient with chronic myelogenous leukemia. In contrast, the promyelocytic cell line HL-60 expressed perlecan at barely detectable levels. These results were intriguing because the K562 cells do not assemble or produce a classical basement membrane. Following induction with either sodium butyrate or the phorbol diester 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), K562 and HL-60 differentiate into early progenitor cells with erythroid or megakaryocytic properties, respectively. Following treatment of K562 and HL-60 cells with either of these agents, perlecan expression was markedly increased in K562 cells. In contrast, we could detect perlecan protein synthesis in HL-60 cells only at very low levels, even after induction with TPA or sodium butyrate. Collectively, these results indicate that perlecan is actively synthesized by bone marrow derived cells and suggest that this proteoglycan may play a role in hematopoietic cell differentiation.

An assay procedure for mescaline and its determination in rat brain, liver and plasma.

Eine Schnellmethode zur Bestimmung von Meskalin in Geweben und biologischen Flüssigkeiten wird beschrieben. Nach der Injektion (40 mg/kg, i.p.) sinken die Konzentrationen von Meskalin in Leber und Plasma während der folgenden 2 h rasch ab, während die Verbindung im Gehirn (ca. 1,5 μg/g) bis zu 3,5 h unverändert verbleibt. Ein Vergleich zwischen Meskalin und zwei verwandten Verbindungen wurde angestellt.

Increasing mitochondrial muscle fatty acid oxidation induces skeletal muscle remodeling toward an oxidative phenotype

Adult skeletal muscle is a dynamic, remarkably plastic tissue, which allows myofibers to switch from fast/glycolytic to slow/oxidative types and to increase mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation (mFAO) capacity and vascularization in response to exercise training. mFAO is the main muscle energy source during endurance exercise, with carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1 (CPT1) being the key regulatory enzyme. Whether increasing muscle mFAO affects skeletal muscle physiology in adulthood actually remains unknown. To investigate this, we used in vivo electrotransfer technology to express in mouse tibialis anterior (TA), a fast/glycolytic muscle, a mutated CPT1 form (CPT1mt) that is active but insensitive to malonyl‐CoA, its physiologic inhibitor. In young (2‐mo‐old) adult mice, muscle CPT1mt expression enhanced mFAO (+40%), but also increased the percentage of oxidative fibers (+28%), glycogen content, and capillary‐to‐fiber density (+45%). This CPT1mt‐induced muscle remodeling, which mimicked exercise‐induced oxidative phenotype, led to a greater resistance to muscle fatigue. In the context of aging, characterized by sarcopenia and reduced oxidative capacity, CPT1mt expression in TAs from aged (20‐mo‐old) mice partially reversed aging‐associated sarcopenia and fiber‐type transition, and increased muscle capillarity. These findings provide evidence that mFAO regulates muscle phenotype and may be a potential target to combat age‐related decline in muscle function.—Hénique, C., Mansouri, A., Vavrova, E., Lenoir, V., Ferry, A., Esnous, C., Ramond, E., Girard, J., Bouillaud, F., Prip‐Buus, C., Cohen, I. Increasing mitochondrial muscle fatty acid oxidation induces skeletal muscle remodeling toward an oxidative phenotype. FASEB J. 29, 2473‐2483 (2015). www.fasebj.org