Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

ZEB2-transgene expression in the epidermis compromises the integrity of the epidermal barrier through the repression of different tight junction proteins

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Epithelial homeostasis within the epidermis is maintained by means of multiple cell–cell adhesion complexes such as adherens junctions, tight junctions, gap junctions, and desmosomes. These complexes co-operate in the formation and the regulation of the epidermal barrier. Disruption of the epidermal barrier through the deregulation of the above complexes is the cause behind a number of skin disorders such as psoriasis, dermatitis, keratosis, and others. During epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), epithelial cells lose their adhesive capacities and gain mesenchymal properties. ZEB transcription factors are key inducers of EMT. In order to gain a better understanding of the functional role of ZEB2 in epidermal homeostasis, we generated a mouse model with conditional overexpression of Zeb2 in the epidermis. Our analysis revealed that Zeb2 expression in the epidermis leads to hyperproliferation due to the combined downregulation of different tight junction proteins compromising the epidermal barrier. Using two epidermis-specific in vivo models and in vitro promoter assays, we identified occludin as a new Zeb2 target gene. Immunohistological analysis performed on human skin biopsies covering various pathogeneses revealed ZEB2 expression in the epidermis of pemphigus vulgaris. Collectively, our data support the notion for a potential role of ZEB2 in intracellular signaling of this disease.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Lee JM, Dedhar S, Kalluri R, Thompson EW (2006) The epithelial–mesenchymal transition: new insights in signaling, development, and disease. J Cell Biol 172(7):973–981

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Shook D, Keller R (2003) Mechanisms, mechanics and function of epithelial–mesenchymal transitions in early development. Mech Dev 120(11):1351–1383

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Nieto MA (2011) The ins and outs of the epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in health and disease. Annu Rev Cell Dev Biol 27:347–376

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Thiery JP, Acloque H, Huang RY, Nieto MA (2009) Epithelial–mesenchymal transitions in development and disease. Cell 139(5):871–890

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Greenburg G, Hay ED (1982) Epithelia suspended in collagen gels can lose polarity and express characteristics of migrating mesenchymal cells. J Cell Biol 95(1):333–339

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. De Craene B, Berx G (2013) Regulatory networks defining EMT during cancer initiation and progression. Nat Rev Cancer 13(2):97–110

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Proksch E, Brandner JM, Jensen JM (2008) The skin: an indispensable barrier. Exp Dermatol 17(12):1063–1072

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Furuse M, Hata M, Furuse K, Yoshida Y, Haratake A, Sugitani Y, Noda T, Kubo A, Tsukita S (2002) Claudin-based tight junctions are crucial for the mammalian epidermal barrier: a lesson from claudin-1-deficient mice. J Cell Biol 156(6):1099–1111

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Tinkle CL, Lechler T, Pasolli HA, Fuchs E (2004) Conditional targeting of E-cadherin in skin: insights into hyperproliferative and degenerative responses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(2):552–557

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Tunggal JA, Helfrich I, Schmitz A, Schwarz H, Gunzel D, Fromm M, Kemler R, Krieg T, Niessen CM (2005) E-cadherin is essential for in vivo epidermal barrier function by regulating tight junctions. Embo J 24(6):1146–1156

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Vasioukhin V, Bowers E, Bauer C, Degenstein L, Fuchs E (2001) Desmoplakin is essential in epidermal sheet formation. Nat Cell Biol 3(12):1076–1085

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Presland RB, Dale BA (2000) Epithelial structural proteins of the skin and oral cavity: function in health and disease. Crit Rev Oral Biol Med 11(4):383–408

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Tinkle CL, Pasolli HA, Stokes N, Fuchs E (2008) New insights into cadherin function in epidermal sheet formation and maintenance of tissue integrity. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105(40):15405–15410

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Savagner P, Kusewitt DF, Carver EA, Magnino F, Choi C, Gridley T, Hudson LG (2005) Developmental transcription factor slug is required for effective re-epithelialization by adult keratinocytes. J Cell Physiol 202(3):858–866

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Arnoux V, Nassour M, L’Helgoualc’h A, Hipskind RA, Savagner P (2008) Erk5 controls Slug expression and keratinocyte activation during wound healing. Mol Biol Cell 19(11):4738–4749

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Du F, Nakamura Y, Tan TL, Lee P, Lee R, Yu B, Jamora C (2010) Expression of snail in epidermal keratinocytes promotes cutaneous inflammation and hyperplasia conducive to tumor formation. Cancer Res 70(24):10080–10089

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  17. Hardman MJ, Sisi P, Banbury DN, Byrne C (1998) Patterned acquisition of skin barrier function during development. Development 125(8):1541–1552

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Thomason HA, Scothern A, McHarg S, Garrod DR (2010) Desmosomes: adhesive strength and signalling in health and disease. Biochem J 429(3):419–433

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Ikenouchi J, Matsuda M, Furuse M, Tsukita S (2003) Regulation of tight junctions during the epithelium-mesenchyme transition: direct repression of the gene expression of claudins/occludin by Snail. J Cell Sci 116(Pt 10):1959–1967

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Comijn J, Berx G, Vermassen P, Verschueren K, van Grunsven L, Bruyneel E, Mareel M, Huylebroeck D, van Roy F (2001) The two-handed E box binding zinc finger protein SIP1 downregulates E-cadherin and induces invasion. Mol Cell 7(6):1267–1278

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Verschueren K, Remacle JE, Collart C, Kraft H, Baker BS, Tylzanowski P, Nelles L, Wuytens G, Su MT, Bodmer R, Smith JC, Huylebroeck D (1999) SIP1, a novel zinc finger/homeodomain repressor, interacts with Smad proteins and binds to 5′-CACCT sequences in candidate target genes. J Biol Chem 274(29):20489–20498

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Cirillo N, Cozzani E, Carrozzo M, Grando SA (2012) Urban legends: pemphigus vulgaris. Oral Dis 18(5):442–458

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Nyabi O, Naessens M, Haigh K, Gembarska A, Goossens S, Maetens M, De Clercq S, Drogat B, Haenebalcke L, Bartunkova S, De Vos I, De Craene B, Karimi M, Berx G, Nagy A, Hilson P, Marine JC, Haigh JJ (2009) Efficient mouse transgenesis using Gateway-compatible ROSA26 locus targeting vectors and F1 hybrid ES cells. Nucleic Acids Res 37(7):e55

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Derksen PW, Liu X, Saridin F, van der Gulden H, Zevenhoven J, Evers B, van Beijnum JR, Griffioen AW, Vink J, Krimpenfort P, Peterse JL, Cardiff RD, Berns A, Jonkers J (2006) Somatic inactivation of E-cadherin and p53 in mice leads to metastatic lobular mammary carcinoma through induction of anoikis resistance and angiogenesis. Cancer Cell 10(5):437–449

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Ramirez A, Page A, Gandarillas A, Zanet J, Pibre S, Vidal M, Tusell L, Genesca A, Whitaker DA, Melton DW, Jorcano JL (2004) A keratin K5Cre transgenic line appropriate for tissue-specific or generalized Cre-mediated recombination. Genesis 39(1):52–57

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Vandewalle C, Comijn J, De Craene B, Vermassen P, Bruyneel E, Andersen H, Tulchinsky E, Van Roy F, Berx G (2005) SIP1/ZEB2 induces EMT by repressing genes of different epithelial cell–cell junctions. Nucleic Acids Res 33(20):6566–6578

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Mejlvang J, Kriajevska M, Vandewalle C, Chernova T, Sayan AE, Berx G, Mellon JK, Tulchinsky E (2007) Direct repression of cyclin D1 by SIP1 attenuates cell cycle progression in cells undergoing an epithelial mesenchymal transition. Mol Biol Cell 18(11):4615–4624

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Mankertz J, Tavalali S, Schmitz H, Mankertz A, Riecken EO, Fromm M, Schulzke JD (2000) Expression from the human occludin promoter is affected by tumor necrosis factor alpha and interferon gamma. J Cell Sci 113(Pt 11):2085–2090

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Kalluri R, Weinberg RA (2009) The basics of epithelial-mesenchymal transition. J Clin Invest 119(6):1420–1428

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. De Craene B, Denecker G, Vermassen P, Taminau J, Mauch C, Derore A, Jonkers J, Fuchs E, Berx G (2014) Epidermal Snail expression drives skin cancer initiation and progression through enhanced cytoprotection, epidermal stem/progenitor cell expansion and enhanced metastatic potential. Cell Death Differ 21(2):310–320

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Fujita H, Hamazaki Y, Noda Y, Oshima M, Minato N (2012) Claudin-4 deficiency results in urothelial hyperplasia and lethal hydronephrosis. PLoS One 7(12):e52272

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Saitou M, Furuse M, Sasaki H, Schulzke JD, Fromm M, Takano H, Noda T, Tsukita S (2000) Complex phenotype of mice lacking occludin, a component of tight junction strands. Mol Biol Cell 11(12):4131–4142

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Spaderna S, Schmalhofer O, Hlubek F, Berx G, Eger A, Merkel S, Jung A, Kirchner T, Brabletz T (2006) A transient, EMT-linked loss of basement membranes indicates metastasis and poor survival in colorectal cancer. Gastroenterology 131(3):830–840

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Muresan Z, Paul DL, Goodenough DA (2000) Occludin 1B, a variant of the tight junction protein occludin. Mol Biol Cell 11(2):627–634

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Wang X, Zheng M, Liu G, Xia W, McKeown-Longo PJ, Hung MC, Zhao J (2007) Kruppel-like factor 8 induces epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and epithelial cell invasion. Cancer Res 67(15):7184–7193

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. De Benedetto A, Rafaels NM, McGirt LY, Ivanov AI, Georas SN, Cheadle C, Berger AE, Zhang K, Vidyasagar S, Yoshida T, Boguniewicz M, Hata T, Schneider LC, Hanifin JM, Gallo RL, Novak N, Weidinger S, Beaty TH, Leung DY, Barnes KC, Beck LA (2011) Tight junction defects in patients with atopic dermatitis. J Allergy Clin Immunol 127(3):773–786

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Kirschner N, Poetzl C, Von den Driesch P, Wladykowski E, Moll I, Behne MJ, Brandner JM (2009) Alteration of tight junction proteins is an early event in psoriasis: putative involvement of proinflammatory cytokines. Am J Pathol 175(3):1095–1106

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Grosse B, Cassio D, Yousef N, Bernardo C, Jacquemin E, Gonzales E (2012) Claudin-1 involved in neonatal ichthyosis sclerosing cholangitis syndrome regulates hepatic paracellular permeability. Hepatology 55(4):1249–1259

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  39. Morohashi S, Kusumi T, Sato F, Odagiri H, Chiba H, Yoshihara S, Hakamada K, Sasaki M, Kijima H (2007) Decreased expression of claudin-1 correlates with recurrence status in breast cancer. Int J Mol Med 20(2):139–143

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Feldman GJ, Mullin JM, Ryan MP (2005) Occludin: structure, function and regulation. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 57(6):883–917

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Onder TT, Gupta PB, Mani SA, Yang J, Lander ES, Weinberg RA (2008) Loss of E-cadherin promotes metastasis via multiple downstream transcriptional pathways. Cancer Res 68(10):3645–3654

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Weng Q, Chen Y, Wang H, Xu X, Yang B, He Q, Shou W, Higashi Y, van den Berghe V, Seuntjens E, Kernie SG, Bukshpun P, Sherr EH, Huylebroeck D, Lu QR (2012) Dual-mode modulation of Smad signaling by Smad-interacting protein Sip1 is required for myelination in the central nervous system. Neuron 73(4):713–728

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Goossens S, Janzen V, Bartunkova S, Yokomizo T, Drogat B, Crisan M, Haigh K, Seuntjens E, Umans L, Riedt T, Bogaert P, Haenebalcke L, Berx G, Dzierzak E, Huylebroeck D, Haigh JJ (2011) The EMT regulator Zeb2/Sip1 is essential for murine embryonic hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell differentiation and mobilization. Blood 117(21):5620–5630

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Dr. Amin Bredan for critical reading of the manuscript and the members of our research group for valuable discussions. We would also like to thank Prof. Dr. J. Ikenouchi (Kyoto University, Dept. of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering) for kindly providing us with the human occludin promoter construct. This research was funded by grants from V.I.B.-International PhD Program in Life Sciences, the FWO, the geconcerteerde onderzoeksacties of Ghent University, the Stichting tegen Kanker and the EU-FP7 framework program TuMIC 2008-201662.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, Inflammation Research Center, VIB, Technologiepark 927, 9052, Ghent (Zwijnaarde), Belgium

    Marianthi N. Tatari, Bram De Craene, Bieke Soen, Joachim Taminau, Petra Vermassen & Geert Berx

  2. Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology, Ghent University, 9052, Ghent, Belgium

    Marianthi N. Tatari, Bram De Craene, Bieke Soen, Joachim Taminau, Petra Vermassen, Steven Goossens, Katharina Haigh, Jody J. Haigh & Geert Berx

  3. Unit of Vascular Cell Biology, Inflammation Research Center, VIB, 9052, Ghent, Belgium

    Steven Goossens, Katharina Haigh & Jody J. Haigh

  4. Laboratory of Molecular Biology (Celgen), Department of Development and Regeneration, Faculty of Medicine, Research Unit Embryo and Stem Cells, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Silvia Cazzola & Danny Huylebroeck

  5. Department of Dermatology 2K4, Ghent University Hospital, De Pintelaan 185, 9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Jo Lambert

Authors
  1. Marianthi N. Tatari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Bram De Craene
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bieke Soen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Joachim Taminau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Petra Vermassen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Steven Goossens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Katharina Haigh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Silvia Cazzola
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Jo Lambert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Danny Huylebroeck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Jody J. Haigh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Geert Berx
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Geert Berx.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (PDF 989 kb)

Supplementary material 2 (DOCX 29 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Tatari, M.N., De Craene, B., Soen, B. et al. ZEB2-transgene expression in the epidermis compromises the integrity of the epidermal barrier through the repression of different tight junction proteins. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 71, 3599–3609 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-014-1589-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-014-1589-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation