Uric acid (UA) has been demonstrated to reduce damage to neurons elicited by oxidative stress. However, our studies utilizing cultures derived from embryonic rat spinal cord indicate that an astroglia-mediated mechanism is involved in the effects of UA to protect neurons from glutamate toxicity. The damage elicted by glutamate to neurons in a mixed culture of spinal cord cells can be reversed by UA. Furthermore, addition of UA after the termination of glutamate exposure suggests that UA plays an active role in mediating neuroprotection rather than purely binding peroxynitrite, as previously thought. Importantly, in pure neuron cultures from the same tissue, UA does not protect against glutamate toxicity. Addition of astroglia to the pure neuron cultures restores the ability of UA to protect the neurons from glutamate-induced toxicity. Our results also suggest that glia provide EAAT-1 and EAAT-2 glutamate transporters to protect neurons from glutamate, that functional EAATs may be necessary to mediate the effects of UA, and that treatment with UA results in upregulation of EAAT-1 protein. Taken together, our data strongly suggest that astroglia in mixed cultures are essential for mediating the effects of UA, revealing a novel mechanism by which UA, a naturally produced substance in the body, may act to protect neurons from damage during insults such as spinal cord injury.

Cancer cells differ from normal cells in many aspects, including hyperproliferation and loss of differentiation. Recent research has focused on the role of transcription factors in regulating abnormal cell growth. Gut-enriched Krüppel-like factor (GKLF) is a newly identified eukaryotic zinc finger protein expressed extensively in the gastrointestinal tract. In the current study, we demonstrated that GKLF mRNA levels were significantly decreased in the dysplastic epithelium of the colon, including adenomatous polyp and cancer. GKLF immunostains in the normal colon were higher at the surface epithelium and gradually decreased toward the crypt, but this gradient was not present in the adenomatous and cancerous mucosa. Constitutive overexpression of GKLF DNA in a human colonic adenocarcinoma cell line (HT-29) decreased [(3)H]thymidine incorporation, whereas suppression of GKLF gene increased DNA synthesis, indicating that downregulation of the GKLF gene might contribute to cellular hyperproliferation. Cyclin D1 (CD1) protein level and CD1-associated kinase activity were decreased in HT-29 cell overexpressed GKLF cDNA, and CD1 promoter activity was profoundly suppressed by GKLF. When HT-29 cells were cultured in the presence of sodium butyrate, GKLF mRNA levels increased as cells acquired more differentiated phenotypes. These results suggest that GKLF plays an important role in regulating cell growth and differentiation in the colonic epithelium and that downregulation of GKLF expression may cause colonic cells to become hyperproliferative. Furthermore, GKLF appears to be a transcriptional repressor of the CD1 gene.

Although the zinc finger transcription factor Krüppel-like factor 4 (KLF4) has been shown to be a negative regulator of cell proliferation, the mechanisms underlying the posttranslational modification of KLF4, especially at the level of protein degradation, are poorly understood. Here, we show that KLF4 protein levels in quiescent cells were high, but decreased rapidly as cells entered the proliferating stage following serum stimulation. This decrease was partially reversed by pretreatment with MG132, a proteasome inhibitor. Moreover, KLF4 was an unstable protein that underwent rapid turnover, and exhibited a relatively short half-life (t 1/2 f120 minutes). To investigate the involvement of the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway in the regulation of the stability of KLF4, HCT116 cells were treated with proteasome inhibitors. Our results showed that, following lactacystin treatment, levels of endogenous KLF4 increased in a time-and dose-dependent manners. Using a cell-free system, in vitro-translated 35 S-labeled KLF4 protein was degraded by protein extracts prepared from exponentially growing HCT116 cells in the presence of ATP. These effects were prevented by pretreatment with MG132 or replacement of ATP with ATP-;-S, a nonhydrolyzable analogue of ATP, suggesting that ATP is required for KLF4 degradation by the 26S proteasome. In addition, KLF4 was subject to ubiquitination when cells were treated with the proteasome inhibitor or transfected with exogenous ubiquitin. Collectively, these results indicate that destabilization of KLF4 following serum stimulation is mediated, at least in part, through a ubiquitinproteasome pathway. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(22): 10394-400)

Gut-enriched Krü ppel-like factor (GKLF, KLF4) is an epithelial-specific transcription factor that expresses in the gastrointestinal tract and mediates growth arrest of colonic epithelium. The molecular mechanisms governing its growth inhibitory effect have not been fully elucidated. In the present study, we showed that induction of GKLF mRNA and protein expression by interferon-␥ treatment was associated with reduction of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) gene expression and enzyme activity in colon cancer HT-29 cells. Overexpression of GKLF in HT-29 cells significantly reduced ODC mRNA and protein levels as well as enzyme activity and resulted in growth arrest, indicating that ODC might be a downstream target of GKLF. This conclusion was further supported by data showing that GKLF mRNA and protein concentrations were the highest at the G 1 /S boundary of the cell cycle, where ODC mRNA and protein levels were the lowest and that overexpression of GKLF resulted in cell arrested at the G 1 phase. Reporter gene transfection studies and electrophoretic mobility gel shift assays demonstrated that GKLF repressed ODC promoter activity and that these effects appeared to be mediated through interaction with a GC box in the proximal portion of the promoter. Transfection studies using reporter constructs and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays also demonstrated that GKLF inhibited transactivation of the ODC gene by interfering with the binding of Sp1 to the ODC promoter. These results indicate that GKLF may function as a G 1 /S checkpoint regulator and exert its growth arrest effect through down-regulation of ODC gene expression. Furthermore, GKLF is a transcriptional repressor of the ODC gene, and these effects are mediated by interaction with the GC-rich region on the promoter.Ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), 1 a key regulatory enzyme of the biosynthesis of polyamines, is essential for cell proliferation and differentiation (1). The expression of ODC is highly regulated in cells and is responsive to a wide variety of growthpromoting stimuli (2, 3). Alternation in ODC gene expression resulting in polyamine accumulation has been demonstrated to associate with cell transformation and carcinogenesis (4). Furthermore, ODC has previously been shown to play a critical role in the progression of colon cancers. Luc and Baylin (5) examined polyps from familial adenomatous polyposis patients and demonstrated higher levels of ODC activity in dysplastic polyps than in nondysplastic ones. Porter et al. (6) also found levels of ODC activity in the carcinoma tissues 8-fold higher than in the adjacent normal colonic mucosa. In experimental animal models of colon carcinogenesis, both tumor-promoting agents and carcinogens induce ODC activity (7,8). These data are consistent with the essential role of ODC in the tumorigenesis of the colon.Gut-enriched krü ppel-like factor (GKLF, KLF4) is a recently identified epithelial-specific transcription factor that expresses extensively in the gastrointestinal tract (9 -12). Several in vivo and in vitro ...