Hepatocyte cell adhesion molecule (hepaCAM) encodes a generally inactive phosphorylated glycoprotein which mediates cancer cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation. We have reported that hepaCAM is down-regulated in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and takes responsibility of cell growth inhibition. However, the precise mechanisms of hepaCAM inhibits cell growth is still unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that re-expression of hepaCAM can cause an accumulation in G0/G1 phase in 786-0 cells. This reaction was accompanied by a substantial reduction of c-Myc expression through using an ectopic hepaCAM expression system. Furthermore, we found a comparable decrease in proliferation and G0/G1 accumulation of 786-0 and RC-2 cells after treatment with a small molecule c-Myc inhibitor, 10058-F4. This indicated that the down regulation of c-Myc was an essential process in controlling growth inhibitory actions of hepaCAM. Nevertheless, re-expression of hepaCAM results in apparent reduction of c-Myc protein with no corresponding reduction of c-Myc mRNA. This suggests that this reaction might take place at a post-transcriptional level rather than transcriptional one. Consistent with these findings, hepaCAM decreased c-Myc stability by increasing the proportion of c-Myc phosphorylation on T58 which can be abrogated by a proteasomal inhibitor (MG132). Thus, our research implies that the decrease in c-Myc protein expression, resulting from ectopic expression of hepaCAM, may contribute to the inhibition of proliferation in these cells.
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