Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Sakamoto, Naoya
• Segawa, Kei
• Kanzaki, Makoto
• Ohashi, Toshiro
• Sato, Masaaki

Titel

Role of p120-catenin in the morphological changes of endothelial cells exposed to fluid shear stress

Ist Teil von

• Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 2010-07, Vol.398 (3), p.426-432

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2010

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• ► p120-Catenin–VE-cadherin binding in ECs is maintained during morphological changes. ► Expression of cytoplasmic p120-catenin transiently increases after exposure to flow. ► Increased cytoplasmic p120-catenin may cause EC morphological changes under flow. p120-Catenin is known to play important roles in cell–cell adhesion stability by binding to cadherin and morphological changes of cells by regulating small RhoGTPase activities. Although the expression and binding states of p120-catenin are thought to dynamically change due to morphological adaptation of endothelial cells (ECs) to fluid shear stress, these dynamics remain to be explored. In the present study, we examined the time course of changes in p120-catenin expression and its binding to vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin in ECs exposed to shear stress. Human umbilical vein ECs began to change their morphologies at 3–6 h, and became elongated and oriented to the direction of flow at 24 h after exposure to a shear stress of 1.5 Pa. Binding and co-localization of p120-catenin with VE-cadherin at the foci of cell–cell adhesions were retained in ECs during exposure to shear stress, indicating that VE-cadherin was stabilized in the plasma membrane. In contrast, cytoplasmic p120-catenin that was dissociated from VE-cadherin was transiently increased at 3–6 h after the flow onset. These results suggest that the transient increase of cytoplasmic p120-catenin may stimulate RhoGTPase activities and act as a switch for the morphological changes in ECs in response to shear stress.