960

CD44

CD44 molecule (Indian blood group);CD44;CD44 molecule (Indian blood group)

CD44 antigen|GP90 lymphocyte homing/adhesion receptor|Hermes antigen|cell surface glycoprotein CD44|chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 8|epican|extracellular matrix receptor III|hematopoietic cell E- and L-selectin ligand|heparan sulfate proteoglycan|homing

11p13

protein-coding

Normal human prostate (NHP) epithelial cells undergo senescence in vitro and in vivo, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain obscure. Here we show that the senescence of primary NHP cells, which are immunophenotyped as intermediate basal-like cells expressing progenitor cell markers CD44, alpha2beta1, p63, hTERT, and CK5/CK18, involves loss of telomerase expression, up-regulation of p16, and activation of p53. Using genetically defined manipulations of these three signaling pathways, we show that p16 is the primary determinant of the NHP cell proliferative capacity and that hTERT is required for unlimited proliferative life span. Hence, suppression of p16 significantly extends NHP cell life span, but both p16 inhibition and hTERT are required to immortalize NHP cells. Importantly, immortalized NHP cells retain expression of most progenitor markers, demonstrate gene expression profiles characteristic of proliferating progenitor cells, and possess multilineage differentiation potential generating functional prostatic glands. Our studies shed important light on the molecular mechanisms regulating the proliferative life span of NHP progenitor cells.

The mechanism that is responsible for progression of atherosclerosis seen with increasing age remains controversial. This issue was addressed in the present study, by searching for genes that are uniquely expressed in senescent endothelial cells and functionally involved in inflammatory leukocyte adhesion recognized as a critical step in the initiation of atherogenesis. Senescent human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) prepared by continuous subculturing in vitro showed higher binding affinity for monocytes (THP-1 cells, human acute monocytic leukemia cell line) compared with young cells. Gene expression profiles between young and senescent endothelial cells were compared by the cDNA microarray method, and CD44 was identified as one of the "senescence-induced cell adhesion genes" whose expression was upregulated in senescent cells and whose gene ontology annotation indicated their role in cell adhesion. The enhanced gene expression of CD44 in senescent endothelial cells was verified both at the mRNA and protein levels. Adhesion of monocytes to senescent endothelial cells was significantly reduced following pretreatment of endothelial cells with the CD44 antibody or small-interfering RNA, thus reinforcing the critical role of CD44 in the inflammatory event. Exogenous expression of CD44 in young HUVECs and in human aortic endothelial cells led to an increase in monocyte adhesion. CD44 expression levels in the rat aorta endothelium were found to increase in an age-dependent manner, as determined by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. CD44 and other senescence-induced cell adhesion genes identified in this study may provide the novel targets for the prevention of inflammatory leukocyte adhesion leading to the development atherosclerosis.