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pubmed:abstractText |
C/EBP? is essential for mammary gland growth and development and has been associated with poor prognosis in breast cancer. Overexpression of C/EBP?2 in MCF10A cells results in a variety of cancer phenotypes including EMT and ErbB independence. IL1? is dramatically upregulated in MCF10A-C/EBP?2 cells but there is little, if any, processing to the mature 17 kD form. Although proIL1b has previously been considered to be biologically inactive, we demonstrate proIL1b is not only localized to the nucleus, but is also tightly associated with the chromatin. We show that proIL1? is bound at specific locations in the genome and is positioned in such a way to play a role in the cancer phenotypes observed in MCF10A-C/EBP?2 cells. Moreover, nuclear IL1? is detected in some human breast tumor samples. This study demonstrates the presence of nuclear proIL1? in transformed mammary epithelial cells providing the first evidence that IL1? may be a dual function cytokine.
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