Mislocalization of the exitatory amino-acid transporters (EAATs) in human astrocytoma and non-astrocytoma cancer cells: effect of the cell confluence

BackgroundAstrocytomas are cancers of the brain in which high levels of extracellular glutamate plays a critical role in tumor growth and resistance to conventional treatments. This is due for part to a decrease in the activity of the glutamate transporters, i.e. the Excitatory Amino Acid Transporters or EAATs, in relation to their nuclear mislocalization in astrocytoma cells. Although non-astrocytoma cancers express EAATs, the localization of EAATs and the handling of L-glutamate in that case have not been investigated.MethodsWe looked at the cellular localization and activity of EAATs in human astrocytoma and non-astrocytoma cancer cells by immunofluorescence, cell fractionation and L-glutamate transport studies.ResultsWe demonstrated that the nuclear mislocalization of EAATs was not restricted to astrocytoma and happened in all sub-confluent non-astrocytoma cancer cells we tested. In addition, we found that cell-cell contact caused the relocalization of EAATs from the nuclei to the plasma membrane in all human cancer cells tested, except astrocytoma.ConclusionsTaken together, our results demonstrated that the mislocalization of the EAATs and its associated altered handling of glutamate are not restricted to astrocytomas but were also found in human non-astrocytoma cancers. Importantly, we found that a cell contact-dependent signal caused the relocalization of EAATs at the plasma membrane at least in human non-astrocytoma cancer cells, resulting in the correction of the altered transport of glutamate in such cancer cells but not in astrocytoma.

• Publication year

  2012

• Venue

  Journal of Biomedical Sciences

• Publication date

  2012-02-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1186/1423-0127-19-10PMID 22296701PMCID 3293732
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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