Organization and expression of intermediate filaments in epithelial cells expressing the HTLV-I Tax protein

Intermediate filaments (IF) represent major components of the cytoskeletal network. These proteins which are differentially expressed according to the cell type, constitute a dynamic structure which not only contributes to the cell architecture but also defines its state of differentiation. Furthermore, numerous observations have shown that the IF network is altered in cells transformed by tumorigenic viruses. We have previously demonstrated that HTLV-I (human T-cell leukemia virus type I) transformed T cells were characterized by a high level of vimentin transcripts and that the HTLV-I Tax regulatory protein was able to transactivate the vimentin promoter transfected into Jurkat and HeLa cells. To enlarge the scope of this study, we investigated the effects of the Tax protein on the expression and organization of IF of epithelial cells in which the IF network is composed of vimentin and cytokeratin. To this aim, we have developed a model of epithelial cells (HeLa) stably expressing the tax sequences which were introduced by using retrovirus-mediated gene transfer. Half of the Tax expressing HeLa clones were loosely adherent to the culture surface and were displaying remarkable morphological alterations, as ascertained by the presence of round-shaped or spindle-shaped cells. In these cells, expression of this viral protein correlated to a pronounced disruption in the distribution of both the vimentin and the cytokeratin networks, as shown by immunofluorescence and ultrastructural analysis. Indeed, vimentin filaments appeared to be concentrated in discrete spots throughout the cytoplasm, while the cytokeratin filaments appeared to form a dense ring around the nucleus. More importantly, mRNA and protein analysis indicate an enhanced expression of the cytokeratin 7 gene.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)