Density-dependent stimulation and inhibition of cell growth by agents that disrupt microtubules

Protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTPase) activity was examined in two cell lines: human umbilical vein endothelial (HUVE) cells, which display contact inhibition of cell growth, and A427 human adenocarcinoma cells, which have lost this ability. HUVE cells harvested at high density displayed a 10-fold increase in membrane-associated PTPase activity. A427 cells exhibited no such phenomenon. Moreover, modification of HUVE cell growth rate by a stimulating agent such as basic fibroblast growth factor or by blocking compounds such as thymidine or suramin resulted in no change in PTPase activity, suggesting that the observed increase in membrane-associated activity at confluency was specific for cell-cell-contact-directed growth arrest. The expression of various PTPase mRNAs was examined in HUVE and A427 cells. Of the receptor-like PTPases tested, two were exclusively expressed in HUVE cells (PTP gamma and HPTP beta). Only HPTP beta, which is structurally similar in its extracellular region to cell-adhesion receptors of the immunoglobulin superfamily, displayed a pattern of expression related to the increase in PTPase activity. Competitive PCR was used to quantify its expression during cell culture. A 12-fold increase in HPTP beta mRNA expression was detected and it parallelled the time course of PTPase activity. This observation strongly implicates receptor-like PTPases in density-dependent growth arrest.

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Deficiency of density-dependent regulation of cell growth in the culture of skin fibroblasts from patients with mucolipidosis III

Journal of Cell Science ◽

10.1242/jcs.87.2.249 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 87 (2) ◽

pp. 249-257 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

A. Oohira ◽

F. Matsui ◽

T. Oki ◽

H. Nogami

Keyword(s):

Cell Growth ◽

Genetic Disorder ◽

Growth Curves ◽

Cell Types ◽

Skin Fibroblasts ◽

Logarithmic Phase ◽

Density Dependent ◽

Sigmoid Curve ◽

Density Dependent Regulation

Cultured skin fibroblast cells were prepared from two patients with mucolipidosis III (ML III), which is a genetic disorder characterized by low activities of multiple lysosomal enzymes in fibroblasts. Genetic complementation analysis of fused fibroblast hybrids revealed that the patients were classified in different complementation groups. Growth curves of fibroblasts of ML III patients in culture were compared with those of fibroblasts of Sanfilippo's syndrome patients as well as of the normal fibroblasts. Normal and Sanfilippo fibroblasts gave essentially the same sigmoid curve of cell growth. However, although both ML III cell lines grew at the normal rate in the initial logarithmic phase, they continued to proliferate actively even after the cultures reached confluency. This is the first report to demonstrate the deficiency of density-dependent regulation of cell growth in the culture of nontransformed cell types. Therefore, the culture of skin fibroblasts of ML III patients may serve as a useful experimental model for investigating the regulation of cell proliferation in vitro.

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