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The mucin-like glycoprotein episialin (MUC1) is highly overproduced by a number of human carcinomas. We have shown previously in a variety of mammalian cell lines that overexpression of this very large transmembrane molecule diminishes cellular adhesion, suggesting that episialin/MUC1 overexpression may play an important role in tumor invasion and metastasis. By using in situ hybridization, we show here that episialin/ MUC1 mRNA expression can be increased more than 10-fold in breast carcinoma cells relative to the expression in adjacent normal breast epithelium. In search of the molecular mechanism of this overexpression, we observed that the episialin/MUC1 promoter contains a candidate binding site for transcription factors of the STAT family ϳ500 base pairs upstream of the transcription start site. Cytokines and/or growth factors such as interleukin-6 or interferon-␥ can activate STATs. In the human breast carcinoma cell line T47D, both compounds are able to stimulate transcription of a luciferase reporter gene under the control of a 750-base pair MUC1 promoter fragment proximal to the transcription start site. The observed increase is entirely mediated by the single STAT-binding site, since mutation of this site abolishes stimulation of the reporter by interleukin-6 and interferon-␥. In addition, mutation of the STAT site also decreased the promoter activity in nonstimulated T47D cells, suggesting that the STAT-binding site is among the elements that are involved in the overexpression of MUC1 in tumor cells. Episialin/MUC11 (also known as MUC1, PEM, CA 15-3 antigen, or EMA) is a transmembrane molecule with a large extracellular mucin-like domain. In normal cells episialin/ MUC1 is exclusively present at the apical side of the cell, but in carcinoma cells normal polarization is lost and episialin/MUC1 co-localizes with adhesion molecules such as integrins and cadherins. The long and relatively rigid extracellular domain of episialin/MUC1 can shield these adhesion molecules and diminish cellular adhesion, if present at a sufficiently high density on the cell surface (1-3). Overexpression of episialin/MUC1 in carcinoma cells has been frequently reported (4 -6) and is expected to have a similar effect on cellular behavior as loss of E-cadherin, the major epithelial cell-cell adhesion molecule, which has been shown to promote invasion and metastasis of carcinoma cells (for review see Refs. 7-9). Therefore, we have proposed that episialin/MUC1 also plays an important role in invasion and metastasis in vivo (10). Indeed, transgenic mice overexpressing episialin/MUC1 develop more aggressive lung tumors than nontransgenic mice, 2 whereas episialin/MUC1 null mice show a slower rate of tumor progression (11).Recent reports have shown that episialin overexpression in various types of neoplasia correlates with poor survival (12)(13)(14). Episialin/MUC1 is also the antigen that is measured in the CA 15-3 assay (the main blood marker to detect recurrence of breast cancer), and it is a molecule that is widely considered as ...

The Delta-Notch pathway is an evolutionarily conserved signaling pathway which controls a broad range of developmental processes including cell fate determination, terminal differentiation and proliferation. In mammals, four Notch receptors (NOTCH1-4) and five activating canonical ligands (JAGGED1, JAGGED2, DLL1, DLL3 and DLL4) have been described. The precise function of noncanonical Notch ligands remains unclear. Delta-like 1 homolog (DLK1), the best studied noncanonical Notch ligand, has been shown to act as an inhibitor of Notch signaling in vitro, but its function in vivo is poorly understood. In this review we summarize Notch signaling during development and highlight recent studies in DLK1expression that reveal new insights into its function.