Y. Nakamura et al., ECTOPIC EXPRESSION OF DAN ENHANCES THE RETINOIC ACID-INDUCED NEURONALDIFFERENTIATION IN HUMAN NEUROBLASTOMA CELL-LINES, Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 243(3), 1998, pp. 722-726
Retinoic acid (RA) plays a major role in neuronal cell differentiation
. Neuroblastoma cells differentiate in vitro by extending neurites and
forming ganglion-like aggregates in response to Rk In the present stu
dy, we have examined a biological role(s) of-DAN in the regulation of
RA-mediated cellular differentiation in neuroblastoma cells. RTBM1 and
SH-SY5Y cells undergo marked morphological changes associated with a
remarkable induction of DAN gene expression when exposed to Rk By tran
sfecting an expression vector harboring a rat DAN cDNA into SH-SY5Y se
lls, we have obtained two independent transfectants which express a la
rge amount of DAN. The forced expression of DAN gene enhanced the neur
ite extension in the presence of RA, suggesting that DAN gene product
might contain some regulatory role(s) in the RA-induced cellular diffe
rentiation in neuroblastoma cells. (C) 1998 Academic Press.