Journal article

Publication year: 2015

Pages: 6447-6463

Journal: International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Volume number: 16

Issue number: 3

ISSN: 1422-0067

Open access status: Gold

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms16036447

Publisher: MDPI

Abstract: 
Acetylcholine and its receptors regulate numerous cellular processes in keratinocytes and other non-neuronal cells. Muscarinic acetylcholine receptors are capable of transactivating the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and, downstream thereof, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, which in turn regulates transcription of genes involved in cell proliferation and migration. We here show that cholinergic stimulation of human HaCaT keratinocytes results in increased transcription of matrix metalloproteinase MMP-3 as well as several ligands of the epidermal growth factor family. Since both metalloproteinases and the said ligands are involved in the transactivation of the EGFR, this transcriptional upregulation may provide a positive feed-forward loop for EGFR/MAPK activation. We here also show that the cholinergic EGFR and MAPK activation and the upregulation of MMP-3 and EGF-like ligands are dependent on the expression of flotillin-1 which we have previously shown to be a regulator of MAPK signaling.

Harvard Citation style: Kühne, S., Ockenga, W., Banning, A. and Tikkanen, R. (2015) Cholinergic Transactivation of the EGFR in HaCaT Keratinocytes Stimulates a Flotillin-1 Dependent MAPK-Mediated Transcriptional Response, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 16(3), pp. 6447-6463. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms16036447

APA Citation style: Kühne, S., Ockenga, W., Banning, A., & Tikkanen, R. (2015). Cholinergic Transactivation of the EGFR in HaCaT Keratinocytes Stimulates a Flotillin-1 Dependent MAPK-Mediated Transcriptional Response. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 16(3), 6447-6463. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms16036447