ISSN:
0730-2312
Keywords:
signal transduction
;
chromatin structure
;
cytology
;
histones
;
metastasis
;
Ras
;
MAPKK
;
NIH3T3 cells
;
Life and Medical Sciences
;
Cell & Developmental Biology
Source:
Wiley InterScience Backfile Collection 1832-2000
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
Notes:
An altered nuclear morphology has been previously noted in association with Ras activation, but little is known about the structural basis, functional significance, signaling pathway, or reproducibility of any such change. We first tested the reproducibility of Ras-associated nuclear change in a series of rodent fibroblast cell lines. After independently developing criteria for recognizing Ras-associated nuclear change in a Papanicolaou stained test cell line with an inducible H(T24)-Ras oncogene, two cytopathologists blindly and independently assessed 17 other cell lines. If the cell lines showed Ras-associated nuclear change, a rank order of increasing nuclear change was independently scored. Ras-associated nuclear changes were identified in v-Fes, v-Src, v-Mos, v-Raf, and five of five H(T24)-Ras transfectants consisting of a change from a flattened, occasionally undulating nuclear shape to a more rigid spherical shape and a change from a finely textured to a coarse heterochromatic appearance. Absent or minimal changes were scored in six control cell lines. The two cytopathologists' independent morphologic rank orders were similar (P〈 .0002). The mitogen signaling pathway per se does not appear to transduce the change since no morphologic alterations were identified in cell lines with activations of downstream components of this pathway - MAPKK or c-Myc - and the rank orders did not correlate with markers of mitotic rate (P 〉 .11). The rank order correlated closely with metastatic potential (P 〈 .0014 and P 〈 .0003) but not with histone H1 composition or global nuclease sensitivity. Based on published studies of five of the cell lines, there may be a correlation between increases in certain nuclear matrix proteins and the Ras-associated nuclear change. J. Cell. Biochem. 70:130-140, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Additional Material:
4 Ill.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
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