Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 105, Issue 43, Pages 16608-16613Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0808328105
Keywords
cancer; ion channel; melanocyte; neural crest; KCNQ
Categories
Funding
- NIDCR NIH HHS [T32 DE007327, K22 DE016633, 5K22DE16633, K22 DE016633-04, 5T32DE007327-07] Funding Source: Medline
- NIGMS NIH HHS [R01-GM07742] Funding Source: Medline
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Ion transporters, and the resulting voltage gradients and electric fields, have been implicated in embryonic development and regeneration. These biophysical signals are key physiological aspects of the microenvironment that epigenetically regulate stem and tumor cell behavior. Here, we identify a previously unrecognized function for KCNQ1, a potassium channel known to be involved in human Romano-Ward and Jervell-Lange-Nielsen syndromes when mutated. Misexpression of its modulatory wild-type beta-subunit XKCNE1 in the Xenopus embryo resulted in a striking alteration of the behavior of one type of embryonic stem cell: the pigment cell lineage of the neural crest. Depolarization of embryonic cells by misexpression of KCNE1 non-cell-autonomously induced melanocytes to overproliferate, spread out, and become highly invasive of blood vessels, liver, gut, and neural tube, leading to a deeply hyperpigmented phenotype. This effect is mediated. by the up-regulation of Sox10 and Slug genes, thus linking alterations in ion channel function to the control of migration, shape, and mitosis rates during embryonic morphogenesis. Taken together, these data identify a role for the KCNQ1 channel in regulating key cell behaviors and reveal the molecular identity of a biophysical switch, by means of which neoplastic-like properties can be conferred upon a specific embryonic stem cell subpopulation.
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