Journal
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSIOLOGY-REGULATORY INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY
Volume 317, Issue 2, Pages R248-R261Publisher
AMER PHYSIOLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1152/ajpregu.00268.2018
Keywords
beta-catenin; Cx43; nuclear translocation; Wnt; wound healing
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Funding
- Prostate Cancer Research Centre (UK Registered Charity) [1156027]
- China Scholarship Council
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The availability of intracellular, stabilized beta-catenin, a transcription factor coactivator, is tightly regulated; beta-catenin is translocated into the nucleus in response to Wnt ligand binding to its cell membrane receptors. Here we show that Wnt signal activation in mammalian cells activates intracellular mobilization of connexin 43 (Cx43), which belongs to a gap junction protein family, a new target protein in response to extracellular Wnt signal activation. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the nuclear localization of Cx43 was increased by 8- to 10-fold in Wnt5A- and 9B-treated cells compared with controls; this Wnt-induced increase was negated in the cells where Cx43 and beta-catenin were knocked down using shRNA. There was a significant (P < 0.001) and concomitant depletion of the cell membrane and cytosolic signal of Cx43 in Wnt-treated cells with an increase in the nuclear signal for Cx43; this was more obvious in cells where beta-catenin was knocked down using shRNA. Conversely, Cx43 knockdown resulted in increased beta-catenin in the nucleus in the absence of Wnt activation. Coimmunoprecipitation of Cx43 and beta-catenin proteins with a casein kinase (CKI delta) antibody showed that Cx43 interacts with beta-catenin and may form part of the so-called destruction complex. Functionally. Wnt activation increased the rate of wound reepithelization in rat skin in vivo.
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