No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

In individuals with mammary carcinoma, the most relevant prognostic predictor of distant organ metastasis and clinical outcome is the status of axillary lymph node metastasis. Metastases form initially in axillary sentinel lymph nodes and progress via connecting lymphatic vessels into postsentinel lymph nodes. However, the mechanisms of consecutive lymph node colonization are unknown. Through the analysis of human mammary carcinomas and their matching axillary lymph nodes, we show here that intrametastatic lymphatic vessels and bulk tumor cell invasion into these vessels highly correlate with formation of postsentinel metastasis. In an in vitro model of tumor bulk invasion, human mammary carcinoma cells caused circular defects in lymphatic endothelial monolayers. These circular defects were highly reminiscent of defects of the lymphovascular walls at sites of tumor invasion in vivo and were primarily generated by the tumor-derived arachidonic acid metabolite 12S-HETE following 15-lipoxygenase-1 (ALOX15) catalysis. Accordingly, pharmacological inhibition and shRNA knockdown of ALOX15 each repressed formation of circular defects in vitro. Importantly, ALOX15 knockdown antagonized formation of lymph node metastasis in xenografted tumors. Furthermore, expression of lipoxygenase in human sentinel lymph node metastases correlated inversely with metastasis-free survival. These results provide evidence that lipoxygenase serves as a mediator of tumor cell invasion into lymphatic vessels and formation of lymph node metastasis in ductal mammary carcinomas.

The two subtypes of retinoid Z receptor (RZR alpha and beta) and the three splicing variants of retinoid orphan receptor (ROR alpha 1, alpha 2, and alpha 3) form a subfamily within the superfamily of nuclear hormone receptors. Very recently we found that the pineal gland hormone melatonin is a natural ligand of RZR alpha and RZR beta. Ligand-induced transcriptional control is therefore proposed to mediate physiological functions of melatonin in the brain where RZR beta is expressed, but also in peripheral tissues, where RZR alpha was found. However, no natural RZR responding genes have been identified yet. Here, we report that a response element in the promoter of 5-lipoxygenase binds specifically RZR alpha and ROR alpha 1, but not ROR alpha 2 and alpha 3. 5-Lipoxygenase is a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of leukotrienes, which are known to be allergic and inflammatory mediators. We could show that the activity of the whole 5-lipoxygenase promoter as well as of the RZR response element fused to the heterologous thymidine kinase promoter could be repressed by melatonin. The hormone down-regulated the expression of 5-lipoxygenase about 5-fold in B lymphocytes, which express RZR alpha. In contrast, 5-lipoxygenase mRNA levels were not affected in differentiated monocytic and granulocytic cell lines, which do not express RZR alpha. This indicates that 5-lipoxygenase is the first natural RZR alpha responding gene. Furthermore, our results open up a new perspective in understanding the involvement of melatonin in inflammatory and immunological reactions.

Changes in vitamin D serum levels have been associated with inflammatory diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, multiple sclerosis (MS), atherosclerosis, or asthma. Genome- and transcriptome-wide studies indicate that vitamin D signaling modulates many inflammatory responses on several levels. This includes (i) the regulation of the expression of genes which generate pro-inflammatory mediators, such as cyclooxygenases or 5-lipoxygenase, (ii) the interference with transcription factors, such as NF-κB, which regulate the expression of inflammatory genes and (iii) the activation of signaling cascades, such as MAP kinases which mediate inflammatory responses. Vitamin D targets various tissues and cell types, a number of which belong to the immune system, such as monocytes/macrophages, dendritic cells (DCs) as well as B- and T cells, leading to individual responses of each cell type. One hallmark of these specific vitamin D effects is the cell-type specific regulation of genes involved in the regulation of inflammatory processes and the interplay between vitamin D signaling and other signaling cascades involved in inflammation. An important task in the near future will be the elucidation of the regulatory mechanisms that are involved in the regulation of inflammatory responses by vitamin D on the molecular level by the use of techniques such as chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), ChIP-seq, and FAIRE-seq.

No abstract

5-Lipoxygenase (5-LO) is the key enzyme in the biosynthesis of proinflammatory leukotrienes. This study showed that various forms of cell stress, such as chemical stress (sodium arsenite), osmotic stress, or heat shock lead to substantial formation of 5-LO products in freshly isolated human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNLs), when exogenous arachidonic acid (10 M) was present. In parallel, cell stress led to activation of p38 MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) and mitogen-activated protein kinase-activated protein kinases (MAPKAPKs) kinases, which can phosphorylate 5-LO in vitro. Interestingly, arsenite also caused redistribution of 5-LO from the cytosol to the nuclear membrane. Only minor activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases and cjun NH 2 -terminal kinases was observed, implying that these MAPKs are less important for 5-LO product formation in stressstimulated PMNLs. Stimulation of 5-LO product formation by Ca ؉؉ -ionophore A23187 or thapsigargin depended on Ca ؉؉ ; almost no 5-LO product formation was observed in freshly isolated PMNLs when Ca ؉؉ was depleted by chelating agents. Also the response to N-formylmethionyl-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLP) was clearly diminished, but some 5-LO product formation remained. In contrast, stress-induced product formation and translocation of 5-LO, as well as activation of p38 MAPK, occurred also after Ca ؉؉ depletion. Moreover, the p38 MAPK inhibitor SB203580 blocked stress-induced 5-LO product formation efficiently, whereas ionophore-or thapsigargin-induced formation of 5-LO products was less sensitive. These data show that cell stress can activate 5-LO in isolated PMNLs by a mechanism that does not involve Ca IntroductionMetabolism of arachidonic acid (AA) by 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) initializes the biosynthesis of biologically active leukotrienes (LTs), which are potent mediators in inflammatory and allergic reactions. 1 Whereas LTB 4 is considered as a potent chemotactic and chemokinetic agent for phagocytes, the cysteinyl-LTs C 4 , D 4 , and E 4 cause smooth muscle contraction and increase vascular permeability. Formation of LTs in leukocytes depends on the availability of free AA from either endogenous pools liberated by activated cytosolic phospholipase A 2 (cPLA 2 ) or from transcellular migration of AA, released from surrounding cells like platelets or endothelial cells. cPLA 2 is regulated by phosphorylation on serine residues and by Ca ϩϩ , which binds to the C2 domain of the enzyme and induces its translocation and binding to the nuclear membrane (for a review, see Gijon and Leslie 2 ).In resting cells, depending on the cell type, 5-LO can occur in different soluble loci. On cell stimulation, 5-LO translocates to the nuclear membrane where it colocalizes with 5-lipoxygenaseactivating protein (FLAP) and cPLA 2 , and an orchestrated interplay between these enzymes is of importance for efficient LT formation (for reviews, see Peters-Golden and Brock 3 and Rådmark 4 ). The activation of cellular 5-LO can be induced by ligation of specific receptor...