Relative RNA levels were normalized to vector transduced MCF-10A cells (data are represented as mean, S

Relative RNA levels were normalized to vector transduced MCF-10A cells (data are represented as mean, S.D. and Compound C (10 M) for 12h. Cells were subsequently fixed and immunostained for YAP (green) and the nuclei (Hoechst, blue). Scale bar: 5 m. D. A specific AMPK activator (A-768662) has similar effects on induction of p-YAP compared with energy stressor phenformin. E. Glucose deprivation induces YAP Ser127 phosphorylation. Cells were cultured in normal medium (control, 4.5g/L glucose) or glucose free medium (Glucose ?) for 12h. Cells were harvested for western blot analysis of p-YAP (Ser127) and total YAP. Protein levels were quantified by densitometry of the bands. F. HEK293A cells were transfected with a YAP reporter plasmid (TEAD-binding element driven firefly luciferase) along with a p-CMV-Renilla-Luc plasmid. Cells at medium density (8000 cells/well) are cultured in normal media (no media change), glucose free media (Glucose ?), adding back glucose (Glucose +) or serum free media (SFM, positive control). Firefly luciferase activities were read 14h after media change, and normalized to renilla luciferase controls (data are represented as mean, S.D. n=3, *, p 0.01, comparing to the Glucose + condition). G. Energy stressors induce p-YAP (Ser127) in NIH3T3, OVCAR8 and HaCaT cells. HCI. Anti-proliferative compounds such as inhibitors of PI3K, AKT, mTOR and CDK4 do not induce p-YAP. Cells were treated with DMSO control, Wortmannin (1M), LY294002 (10 M), rapamycin (100nM) for overnight, and p-YAP levels were analyzed by western blot (H). CDK inhibitor roscovitine was used at 10 M to treat HEK293 cells at different time points (I). I. Quantification of the colony sizes in YAP transformed MCF10A cells. The pixel area of each colony Ethotoin was measured by ImageJ. J. Metformin (10mM) treatment inhibits YAP target genes expression (and and and mice (Zhou et al., 2009). Indeed, metformin dose dependently inhibits the proliferation of an HCC cell line (JF001). Expression of YAP S127A mutant confers resistance to the compound treatment, confirming that metformin inhibits HCC proliferation through the inhibition of YAP (Figure 1G). Taken together, our results illustrate that energy stress can block YAP-dependent transformation and cancer cell proliferation. Energy stress inhibits YAP involving AMPK, Lats1/2 kinases and the tight junction protein AMOTL1 To further explore the mechanisms, we treated wild type and AMPK-null (AMPK1HCCs. Interestingly, metformin treatment induces and co-treatment of Compound C inhibits p-YAP (Ser127) in these cells, suggesting that Mst1/2 kinases are dispensable to inhibit YAP (Figure 2D). This is also consistent with our data that metformin blocks the proliferation of HCCs (Figure 1H). We then used siRNAs to silence Lats1 and Lats2 (~ 90% knockdown) (Figure S2B), which decreased the basal level of p-YAP and completely blocked the effects of energy stressors (Figure 2E), suggesting that energy stress-mediated YAP phosphorylation requires Lats1/2 kinases. Next, we examined the changes of known Hippo pathway regulators upon energy stress. We found that phenformin treatment significantly increased the protein levels of angiomotin like 1 (AMOTL1) by 7.3-fold. The protein levels of other motin family proteins (AMOT and AMOTL2) also increased, although less significantly (Figure 3A). In total, the levels of motin proteins increased more than 12-fold upon phenformin treatment. AMOT, AMOTL1 and AMOTL2 are tight junction proteins that inhibit YAP through three mechanisms: 1) binding to and sequestering YAP out of nuclei (Yi et al., 2011; Zhao et al., 2011); 2) binding to and enhancing Lats1/2 activation(Paramasivam et al., 2011); 3) reducing the stability of YAP by promoting its ubiquitination (Adler et al., 2013a). This is consistent with Ethotoin our observation that, upon metabolic stress, changes in YAP translocation are more quickly detected than its Ser127 phosphorylation, suggesting that direct sequestration and enhanced Lats1/2 activity both play roles in the regulation. Indeed, we observed moderate activation of Lats1 (p-Lats1 Ser909) by 2.2 fold with phenformin treatment. Other upstream Hippo pathway components, such as NF2 and MST2 were not significantly changed..Protein levels were quantified by densitometry of the bands. (green) and the nuclei (Hoechst, blue). Scale bar: 5 m. D. A specific AMPK activator (A-768662) has similar effects on induction of p-YAP Ethotoin compared with energy stressor phenformin. E. Glucose deprivation induces YAP Ser127 phosphorylation. Cells were cultured in normal medium (control, 4.5g/L glucose) or glucose free medium (Glucose ?) for 12h. Cells were harvested for western blot analysis of p-YAP (Ser127) and total YAP. Protein levels were quantified by densitometry of the bands. F. HEK293A cells were transfected with a YAP reporter plasmid (TEAD-binding element driven firefly luciferase) along with a p-CMV-Renilla-Luc plasmid. Cells at medium density (8000 cells/well) are cultured in normal media (no media change), glucose free media (Glucose ?), adding back glucose (Glucose +) or serum free media (SFM, positive control). Firefly luciferase activities were read 14h after media change, and normalized to renilla luciferase controls (data are represented as mean, S.D. n=3, *, p 0.01, comparing to the Glucose + condition). G. Energy stressors induce p-YAP (Ser127) in NIH3T3, OVCAR8 and HaCaT cells. HCI. Anti-proliferative Ethotoin compounds such as inhibitors of PI3K, AKT, mTOR and CDK4 do not induce p-YAP. Cells were treated with DMSO control, Wortmannin (1M), LY294002 (10 M), rapamycin (100nM) for overnight, and p-YAP levels were analyzed by western blot (H). CDK inhibitor roscovitine was used at 10 M to treat HEK293 cells at different time points (I). I. Quantification of the colony sizes in YAP transformed MCF10A cells. The pixel area of Ethotoin each colony was measured by ImageJ. J. Metformin (10mM) treatment inhibits YAP target genes expression (and and and mice (Zhou et al., 2009). Indeed, metformin dose dependently inhibits the proliferation of an HCC cell line (JF001). Expression of YAP S127A mutant confers resistance to the compound treatment, confirming that metformin inhibits HCC proliferation through the inhibition of YAP (Figure 1G). Taken together, our results illustrate that energy stress can block YAP-dependent transformation and cancer cell proliferation. Energy stress inhibits YAP involving Mouse monoclonal to CD18.4A118 reacts with CD18, the 95 kDa beta chain component of leukocyte function associated antigen-1 (LFA-1). CD18 is expressed by all peripheral blood leukocytes. CD18 is a leukocyte adhesion receptor that is essential for cell-to-cell contact in many immune responses such as lymphocyte adhesion, NK and T cell cytolysis, and T cell proliferation AMPK, Lats1/2 kinases and the tight junction protein AMOTL1 To further explore the mechanisms, we treated wild type and AMPK-null (AMPK1HCCs. Interestingly, metformin treatment induces and co-treatment of Compound C inhibits p-YAP (Ser127) in these cells, suggesting that Mst1/2 kinases are dispensable to inhibit YAP (Figure 2D). This is also consistent with our data that metformin blocks the proliferation of HCCs (Figure 1H). We then used siRNAs to silence Lats1 and Lats2 (~ 90% knockdown) (Figure S2B), which decreased the basal level of p-YAP and completely blocked the effects of energy stressors (Figure 2E), suggesting that energy stress-mediated YAP phosphorylation requires Lats1/2 kinases. Next, we examined the changes of known Hippo pathway regulators upon energy stress. We found that phenformin treatment significantly increased the protein levels of angiomotin like 1 (AMOTL1) by 7.3-fold. The protein levels of other motin family proteins (AMOT and AMOTL2) also increased, although less significantly (Figure 3A). In total, the levels of motin proteins increased more than 12-fold upon phenformin treatment. AMOT, AMOTL1 and AMOTL2 are tight junction proteins that inhibit YAP through three mechanisms: 1) binding to and sequestering YAP out of nuclei (Yi et al., 2011; Zhao et al., 2011); 2) binding to and enhancing Lats1/2 activation(Paramasivam et al., 2011); 3) reducing the stability of YAP by promoting its ubiquitination (Adler et al., 2013a). This is consistent with our observation that, upon metabolic stress, changes in YAP translocation are more quickly detected than its Ser127 phosphorylation, suggesting that direct sequestration and enhanced Lats1/2 activity both play roles in the regulation. Indeed, we observed moderate activation of Lats1 (p-Lats1 Ser909) by 2.2 fold with phenformin treatment. Other upstream Hippo pathway components, such as NF2 and MST2 were not significantly changed. We then evaluated the mRNA levels of motin family members by qRT-PCR. We observed that phenformin treatment did not significantly increase the mRNA levels of AMOTL1 and AMOTL2, and AMOT mRNA levels increase by ~2-fold (Figure S3A). We chose to focus our studies on AMOTL1 in energy stress mediated YAP inhibition, as its changes are the most significant. Open in a separate window Figure 3 Endogenous angiomotin like-1 (AMOTL1) is stabilized in response to energy stress and is required to mediate AMPK-induced YAP-cytoplasmic retention and Ser127 phosphorylationA, HEK293A cells were treated with.