Growth inhibition by connexin26 expression in cultured rodent tumor cells

The Connexin (Cx) gene family acts as a tumor suppressor. However, it is unclear whether the tumor-suppressing activity acquired by Cx gene transfection is mainly due to the recovery of the gap junction-mediated intercellular communication (GJIC) or to other unknown mechanisms. In order to elucidate the mechanism of the Cx-induced tumor-suppressing activity, we transfected Cx26 cDNA into a rodent mammary tumor cell-line (BICR-M1Rk) in which Cx43 had been normally expressed and a typical pattern of GJIC had been observed. The exogenous Cx26 was mainly localized on the nuclear envelope, whereas most of the endogenous Cx43 resided at the plasma membrane of the transfected BICR-M1Rk. Consistent with the localization of Cx26, GJIC was not increased upon the transfection of Cx26 when it was assessed by a scrape-loading dye transfer technique. A conventional 3H]-thymidine incorporation study showed that the growth rate of the Cx26-transfected cells was significantly decreased (70%), compared to that of the control BICR-M1Rk. Therefore, our results clearly demonstrate that the exogenously expressed Cx26 in the BICR-M1Rk cancer cell-line exerts an anti-proliferate activity in a GJIC-independent manner.