Biomedical subjects

C Gestblom

Publications and source records attributed to C Gestblom.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1999

Sympathoadrenal hyperplasia causes renal malformations in Ret(MEN2B)-transgenic mice.

The tyrosine kinase receptor Ret is expressed in the ureteric bud and is required for normal renal development. Constitutive loss of Ret, its co-receptor gfralpha-1, or the ligand glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor results in renal agenesis. Transgenic embryos that express a constitutively active form of Ret (Ret(MEN2B)) under the control of the dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DbetaH) promoter develop profound neuroglial hyperplasia of their sympathetic ganglia and adrenal medullae. Embryos from two independent DbetaH-Ret(MEN2B)-transgenic lines exhibit renal malformations. In contrast with ret-/- embryos, renal maldevelopment in DbetaH-Ret(MEN2B)-transgenic embryos results from primary changes in sympathoadrenal organs extrinsic to the kidney. The ureteric bud invades the metanephric mesenchyme normally, but subsequent bud branching and nephrogenesis are retarded, resulting in severe renal hypoplasia. Ablation of sympathoadrenal precursors restores normal renal growth in vivo and in vitro. We postulate that disruption of renal development results because Ret(MEN2B) derived from the hyperplastic nervous tissue competes with endogenous renal Ret for gfralpha-1 or other signaling components. This hypothesis is supported by the observation that renal malformations, which do not normally occur in a transgenic line with low levels of DbetaH-Ret(MEN2B) expression, arise in a gdnf+/- background. However, renal maldevelopment was not recapitulated in kidneys that were co-cultured with explanted transgenic ganglia in vitro. Our observations illustrate a novel pathogenic mechanism for renal dysgenesis that may explain how putative activating mutations of the RET gene can produce a phenotype usually associated with RET deficiency.

Adrenal Glands↗

PubMed1999

The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor dHAND, a marker gene for the developing human sympathetic nervous system, is expressed in both high- and low-stage neuroblastomas.

Neuroblastoma is derived from the sympathetic nervous system and might arise as a result of impaired differentiation, retaining the neuroblastic tumor cells in the cell cycle. Thus, to understand the genesis of neuroblastoma, the study of mechanisms and genes regulating normal sympathetic development is of potential interest. The basic helix-loop-helix transcription factors human achaete-scute homolog-1 (HASH-1) and deciduum, heart, autonomic nervous system, and neural crest derivatives (dHAND) are expressed in the sympathetic nervous system of embryonic mice and chicken, with undetectable postnatal expression. By in situ hybridization technique, we show that dHAND was expressed by human sympathetic neuronal and extra-adrenal chromaffin cells throughout embryonic and fetal life, and was initially expressed in immature chromaffin cells of the adrenal gland. With overt chromaffin differentiation, dHAND was down-regulated. HASH-1, in contrast, was expressed in human sympathetic cells only at the earliest embryonic ages examined (Week 6.5 to 7). All examined neuroblastoma specimens (25/25) and all cell lines (5/5) had detectable dHAND mRNA levels. HASH-1 expression in tumor specimens was more restricted, although all cell lines (5/5) were HASH-1-positive. These results show that neuroblastoma tumors have retained embryonic features, suggesting that many neuroblastomas are blocked at an early stage of normal development when HASH-1 and dHAND are expressed. dHAND also appears to be a reliable and potentially useful clinical diagnostic marker for neuroblastoma, because expression was not dependent on tumor or differentiation stages and other pediatric tumors were dHAND-negative.

Animals↗

PubMed1997

Spatial association of apoptosis-related gene expression and cellular death in clinical neuroblastoma.

Several unique features of neuroblastoma (NB), including the capacity for spontaneous regression and maturation to benign pathology, suggest that genes that regulate cellular proliferation, survival and differentiation may be involved in directing clinical tumour aggressiveness. The in situ expression of Bcl-2, Rb, p21, p53 and Bax proteins, as well as the proliferation marker proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) were examined immunocytochemically in a selection of 38 stage- and outcome-identified NB tumours. Apoptotic cells were identified morphologically and by a DNA fragmentation labelling technique (TUNEL). Although the tumour cell density of Bcl-2, p53, Bax, PCNA and TUNEL positivity correlated with patient survival, a spatially organized expression pattern was further recognized in stroma-poor differentiating tumours. Immature tumour cells adjacent to thin fibrovascular stroma are proliferating, as evidenced by PCNA positivity, and often express Bcl-2. At increasing distance from this fibrovascular stroma, intermediately differentiated tumour cells express Rb, while with more advanced differentiation, proliferation ceases and Bcl-2 immunoreactivity is lost. The most differentiated tumour cells, which often express p53, and occasionally p21 and Bax, lie adjacent to TUNEL-positive, morphologically apoptotic cells. This spatial organization in favourable outcome NB tumours suggests that physiological regulation of differentiation and apoptosis may be involved in tumour regression.

Apoptosis↗

PubMed1997

In vivo spontaneous neuronal to neuroendocrine lineage conversion in a subset of neuroblastomas.

Neuroblastoma is an embryonal tumor derived from the sympathetic nervous system. Although all neuroblastomas have a neuronal character, a subset of tumors also show evidence of extra-adrenal neuroendocrine differentiation in discrete cell layers. A characterization of the cells of the developing human sympathetic nervous system was performed, identifying growth-associated protein-43, neuropeptide tyrosine, and Bcl-2 as marker genes for sympathetic neurons. Whereas all neuroblastomas express growth-associated protein-43, neuropeptide tyrosine, and Bcl-2, tumors with differentiating cells with neuroendocrine features expressed these genes only in the morphologically immature, proliferating cells. Thus, with neuroendocrine tumor cell differentiation, neuronal marker gene expression vanished and proliferation ceased and was succeeded by expression of chromogranin A/B and insulin-like growth factor-2, markers of neuroendocrine chromaffin differentiation. These tumors appear to provide examples of spontaneous lineage conversion from a neuronal to a neuroendocrine phenotype.

Cell Differentiation↗

PubMed1996

Protein kinase C-epsilon is implicated in neurite outgrowth in differentiating human neuroblastoma cells.

A combination of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) or 16 nM 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) and serum induces human SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells to undergo differentiation and acquire a neuronal phenotype. Nerve growth factor (NGF) added to SH-SY5Y cells stably transfected with the NGF-receptor TRK-A (SH-SY5Y/trk) induces a similar differentiated phenotype. SH-SY5Y cells express protein kinase C (PKC)-alpha, PKC-beta I, PKC-epsilon, and PKC-zeta protein, and phorbol ester- or growth factor-induced differentiation results in a sustained activation of PKC. The specific PKC inhibitor GF 109203X blocked TPA- and bFGF-IGF-I-induced neurite outgrowth in wild-type SH-SY5Y cells and NGF-induced neurite outgrowth in SH-SY5Y/trk cells. When added to differentiated cells, GF 109203X caused rapid retraction of growth cone filopodia. In TPA- and bFGF-IGF-I-treated cells, addition of GF 109203X also blocked induced expression of growth associated protein-43 and neuropeptide tyrosine while the increase in expression of these two genes was only slightly affected by the inhibitor in NGF-treated SH-SY5Y/trk cells. Thus, a portion of the NGF-induced phenotypic changes appears not to be mediated via PKC-dependent signaling. A high concentration of TPA (1.6 microM) down regulated PKC-alpha and PKC-beta I almost completely and PKC-epsilon partially in wild-type SH-SY5Y and SH-SY5Y/trk cells. Cells with down-regulated PKC-alpha and PKC-beta I after 1.6 microM TPA treatment still differentiated with growth factors. In these cells, the PKC-epsilon level was restored, and the PKC-epsilon protein was enriched in the growth cones. The 1.6 microM TPA-induced down-regulation of PKC-epsilon was counteracted by bFGF and NGF but not by platelet-derived growth factor or IGF-I. These data indicate that PKC activity is vital for neurite formation, and that the cells can differentiate under conditions when PKC-alpha and PKC-beta I are extensively down regulated. The close correlation between differentiation and presence of PKC-epsilon protein suggests an important function for this isoform during this process.

Cell Differentiation↗

PubMed1996

A developmental model of neuroblastoma: differentiating stroma-poor tumors' progress along an extra-adrenal chromaffin lineage.

The prognosis of children with neuroblastoma (NB) is dependent upon the patient's age at diagnosis, the location of the primary tumor, and histologic tumor cell differentiation. These characteristics, as well as the presumption that NB results from clonal expansion of primitive cells involved in sympathetic nervous system (SNS) development, predict that a model of tumorigenesis based upon normal fetal SNS histogenesis might indicate tumor progenitor status and define biologic and clinical behavior. Immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization were used to examine a panel of marker gene products predicted or shown to be expressed during SNS development in the normal human fetal SNS from 8 to 24 weeks' gestational age. A similar analysis was performed in a selection of clinical NB tumors, and the results were compared. In a subset of differentiating, often extra-adrenal NB tumors in patients who frequently had a favorable outcome; advancing morphologic tumor cell differentiation spatially paralleled an advancing fetal extra-adrenal chromaffin marker gene expression phenotype (ie, increasing TrkA, TrkC, TH, IGF-2, and neuron-specific enolase expression but a lack of phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase expression). In these tumors, expression of gene products associated with normal fetal sympathetic ganglionic differentiation (ie, Bcl-2, HNK-1, and neuropeptide Y) was lost with morphologic tumor cell differentiation. In contrast, undifferentiated tumors, the majority of which were high stage, adrenal in origin, and prognostically unfavorable, displayed marker expression characteristics mirroring that of an early fetal ganglionic lineage. Thus, we show that morphologic differentiation in stroma-poor NB tumors, long held as an important prognostic feature in tumor grading systems, often corresponds to an extra-adrenal chromaffin rather than a ganglion cell or adrenal medullary chromaffin phenotype. Understanding the biology of extra-adrenal chromaffin tissues may provide an explanation for the clinically less aggressive nature of differentiating NB tumors and suggest potential mechanisms for spontaneous regression and/or treatment response.

Biomarkers, Tumor↗

PubMed1995

Proliferation and apoptosis in neuroblastoma: subdividing the mitosis-karyorrhexis index.

The Shimada classification is a frequently used, histopathological classification system for neuroblastoma tumours. Tumours are classified as prognostically favourable or unfavourable based upon stroma content, degree of neuroblastic maturation and patient age at diagnosis. The mitosis-karyorrhexis index is introduced in this classification system, as the cellular density sum of mitotic and karyorrhectic cells in the tumour. The biological nature of karyorrhectic cells is uncertain, but a high mitosis-karyorrhexis index in stroma-poor tumours is an indicator of poor prognosis. In this study, neuroblastoma tumours were analysed for cell proliferation, using antiproliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) immunohistochemistry, and apoptosis, by morphology and in situ end-labelling of fragmented DNA. The karyorrhectic cells described in the Shimada classification were shown to be either proliferating or undergoing apoptosis. It is further shown that a high cellular density of proliferating cells correlates with poor prognosis, whereas a high density of apoptosis, in contrast, indicates favourable outcome.

Apoptosis↗

PubMed1995

Differentiation and survival influences of growth factors in human neuroblastoma.

Human neuroblastoma cell lines are established from high-stage, highly malignant tumours. Despite this and the fact that these tumours are arrested at an early, immature stage, many cell lines have the capacity to undergo neuronal differentiation under proper growth conditions. One such cell line is the noradrenergic SH-SY5Y cell line. These cells can be induced to mature by a variety of modalities, resulting in different mature phenotypes. The use of this cell system as a model to study the stem cell character of neuroblastoma is reviewed and discussed. In particular, we focus on growth factor dependencies in the SH-SY5Y system, and compare that to the normal situation, i.e. growth factor control of sympathetic neuronal and neuroendocrine differentiation during human and rat embryogenesis.

Cell Differentiation↗

PubMed1995

Transfection of TRK-A into human neuroblastoma cells restores their ability to differentiate in response to nerve growth factor.

Human neuroblastoma cell lines frequently express the TRK-A proto-oncogene and bind nerve growth factor (NGF) but do not differentiate when exposed to NGF. Transient transfection of an exogenous TRK-A gene into SH-SY5Y and LA-N-5 neuroblastoma cells restored the ability of these tumor cells to differentiate with NGF. Stable TRK-A-transfected SH-SY5Y cell clones were isolated, and they responded to NGF by autophosphorylation of p140trk-A, c-fos induction, morphological differentiation, and increased expression of two neuronal marker genes, neuropeptide tyrosine and GAP-43. In phorbol ester-induced differentiated wild-type cells, TRK-A expression was increased with no change in NGF responsiveness. Thus, the restoration of the NGF-induced differentiation pathway by exogenous TRK-A presents a system of NGF-responsive human cultured cells and focuses attention on the trk-A protein and its function or malfunction in neuroblastoma.

Cell Differentiation↗

PubMed1994

Protein synthesis and mRNA in isolated growth cones from differentiating SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells.

The human neuroblastoma cell line, SH-SY5Y, differentiates into a neuronal, sympathetic phenotype in the presence of phorbol ester and serum. Growth cones prepared from differentiating SH-SY5Y cells have characteristics similar to those of growth cones from embryonic rat brain. In addition, SH-SY5Y growth cones contain ribosomes. In this study we show, by metabolic labeling of isolated growth cones, that local protein synthesis occurred in these structures. The pattern of labeled proteins was very similar to that of the corresponding cell body fraction. RNA was shown to be transported to the growth cone compartment, and by in situ hybridization. beta-actin mRNA could be visualized in intact neuritic growth cones. Comparison by Northern blot hybridizations of RNA prepared from growth cones and cell bodies, respectively, showed that mRNAs coding for growth-associated protein 43, microtubule-associated protein 2, actin, neuropeptide tyrosine, and glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase were present in both fractions. In contrast, mRNAs coding for the nuclear proteins c-jun and N-myc were virtually absent in the growth cone, but readily detectable in the cell body preparation. The selective distribution of mRNAs to the growth cones was not restricted to stable, abundant mRNA species, since mRNA coding for the insulin-like growth factor I receptor was stable, but not present in growth cones. Thus, differentiating SH-SY5Y cells can sort and transport RNA to the growth cone compartment, suggesting that this system of clonal cells could be useful to unravel mechanisms involved in the compartmentalization of mRNA.

Blotting, Northern↗

PubMedDate not supplied

RET(Men2B)-transgene produces sympathoadrenal tumors but does not prevent intestinal aganglionosis in gdnf-/- or gfr alpha-1(-/-) mice.

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2B (MEN2B) syndrome is caused by a missense mutation in the RET gene, which replaces Met918 by Thr in the intracellular kinase domain of the protein. This single amino acid substitution transforms the receptor into a constitutively active monomeric kinase (RET(Men2B)) and produces an autosomal dominant syndrome characterized by medullary thyroid carcinoma, pheochromocytomas, musculoskeletal anomalies, and mucosal ganglioneuromas. The ligand, GDNF, stimulates RET activity through a co-receptor, GFR alpha-1. In vitro studies have shown that the kinase and mitogenic properties of RET(Men2B) are enhanced by GDNF/GFR alpha-1 stimulation. A relevant clinical question is whether ablation of either GDNF or GFR alpha-1 could alter penetrance or severity of the MEN2B syndrome. We report that ganglioneuromatous tumors caused by a RET(Men2B) transgene in mice are not affected grossly or microscopically by the absence of gdnf or gfr alpha-1. Loss-of-function mutations in ret, gdnf, or gfr alpha-1 cause pan-intestinal aganglionosis in mice. We find that expression of the RET(Men2B) transgene in enteric neural progenitors, after they colonize the gut, does not prevent intestinal aganglionosis associated with gdnf or gfr alpha-1 deficiency.

Acetylcholinesterase↗