Insulin-like growth factors I and II (IGF-I and IGF-ll) are actively involved in neuroblastoma cell growth. In all biological fluids, they are noncovalently bound to high-affinity binding proteins. At least six species of these IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs) have been identified, but their precise roles remain unclear. One of them, IGFBP-6, Is produced by neuroblastoma cells in culture under certain experimentalconditionsand seems to be associated with the arrest of cell growth. We stably transfected IGR-N-91 and SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells with an expression vector comprising IGFBP-6 eDNA, whose expression was placed under the control of the constitutive and ubiquitous cytomeg alovirus promoter. Analyses of the cell cycle (flux cytofluorometry), ml togenic activity (radiolabeled thymidine incorporation), and the number of viable cells (3-(4,5-dlmethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bro mide test) showed that the mitogenic effects of serum, IGF-I, IGF-fl, and des (1-3) IGF-I, a truncated IGF-I analogue with no affinity for IGFBP-6, were depressed in both transfected cell lines. With s.c. injection oftransfected IGR-N-91 cells into nude mice, tumors developed In only 50—70% of cases, 1 or 2 weeks after those in controls, and were 60-90% smaller. Our findings show that IGFBP-6 influences neuroblastoma cell growth, both in vitro and in experimental xenograft development.

BACKGROUND:The insulin-like growth factors (IGFs) are involved in the growth and differentiation of neuroblastoma cells. In all biological fluids, they are non-covalently bound to high-affinity binding proteins (IGFBP-1 to -6) which modulate their bioavailability. We previously showed that IGFBP-6 expression is linked to the arrest of growth in neuroblastoma cells, whereas IGFBP-2 is associated with proliferation.PROCEDURE:To study the role of IGFBP-6 in cell growth, we stably IGR-N-91 neuroblastoma cells with a plasmid containing sequences coding for IGFBP-6 under the control of the cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter.RESULTS:The incidence and size of tumors generated by injecting IGFBP-6-expressing cells into nude mice were reduced by factors of 2 and 5, respectively, as compared with those generated by injection by control cells. Northern blot analyses if xenografts revealed weaker expression of IGF-II, type 2 IGF receptor and IGFBP-2 mRNAs in IGFBP-6-expressing cthan in control xenografts. IGFBP-6 may therefore reduce the expression of IGF-II (which induces tumour development) at a transcriptional level. Conversely, containing IGFBP-2 cDNA under the control of CMV promoter grew three to four times as fast as normal control xenografts. Northern blot analyses revealed weaker expression of intact IGFBP-3 and IGFBP-1 in IGFBP-2-expressing than in control xenografts.CONCLUSIONS:IGFBP-1 and intact IGFBP-3 expression both enhance IGF bioavailability which promotes tumour growth. Although the mechanisms of action of IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-6 remain to be elucidated, an inverse relationship appears to exist between the two binding proteins, IGFBP-2 being involved in proliferation and IGFBP-6 in its arrest.

Previous work has shown that neuroblastoma cells secrete IGFBP-2, -4 and -6 and that expression of these proteins is regulated by retinoic acid (at-RA) which promotes differentiation in these cells. Other agents also induce differentiation of neuroblastoma cells: these include the 9- cis and 13- cis isomers of at-RA, 1,25 dihydroxy- vitamin D3 (VD3), triidothyronine (T3) and 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol 13-acetate (TPA). Nine- cis and 13- cis isomers of at-RA increased IGFBP-6 expression, but decreased IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-4. VD3 stimulated IGFBP-6 and IGFBP-2 expression, whereas T3 inhibited IGFBP-6 expression without affecting IGFBP-2. TPA markedly enhanced expression of all three IGFBPs produced by SK-N-SH cells. Since IGFBP-6 secretion is associated with the arrest of proliferation in neuroblastoma cells and is regulated by the combined actions of differentiation factors, we subcloned the proximal promoter of human IGFBP-6 (nt -766/+1) into a pCAT expression vector so as to examine modulation of its transcriptional activity. VD3 and TPA were capable of stimulating promoter activity, T3 depressed it and at-RA and its 9- cis and 13- cis isomers had no effect. These results confirm the high sensitivity of IGFBP-6 expression to these differentiation agents, essentially at transcriptional level.

Insulin-like growth factors I and II (IGF-I and IGF-II) stimulate proliferation and differentiation in many cell types, including cell lines derived from human neuroblastomas. Their effects are mediated via the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) that is essential for growth in these cells. Amplification of the N-myc oncogene is a marker for poor prognosis in neuroblastoma development, and it therefore seemed of interest to analyze the relationships that may exist between IGF-IR and N-myc. N-myc-deficient SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells were used as an experimental model. After stable transfection with N-myc cDNA, Northern blotting revealed a marked increased in IGF-IR, IGF-II, IGF-binding protein (IGFBP)-2, and IGFBP-4 mRNA levels, whereas IGFBP-6 mRNA levels were clearly diminished. Western immunoblot analysis also demonstrated increased intact IGFBP-2 but decreased IGFBP-6 in the presence of N-myc oncogene. Parallel binding experiments using IGF-I missing the first 3 amino acids revealed a 47% increase in binding sites for IGF-I and an increase of at least 335% in DNA synthesis, as measured by labeled thymidine incorporation into DNA. s.c. injection of these cells into nude mice provoked xenograft development in 50-100% of cases (depending on the series of experiments). Control cells, in contrast, were not tumorigenic. In cells transfected with bp -420/+60 of the human IGF-IR promoter controlling expression of the luciferase reporter gene, promoter activity was stimulated by a factor of 3.8 +/- 0.6 (n = 6) in the presence of N-myc oncogene. This suggests transcriptional regulation of IGF-IR expression by N-myc. IGF-IR activity and N-myc amplification are two events that to date have been identified as independently instrumental in the etiology of human neuroblastoma. Our results provide the first evidence of a direct link between them and demonstrate the effects of the oncogene on components of the IGF system in neuroblastoma cell growth in vitro and in vivo.

Insulin-like growth factors I and II (IGF-I and IGF-II) are actively involved in neuroblastoma cell growth. In all biological fluids, they are noncovalently bound to high-affinity binding proteins. At least six species of these IGF-binding proteins (IGFBPs) have been identified, but their precise roles remain unclear. One of them, IGFBP-6, is produced by neuroblastoma cells in culture under certain experimental conditions and seems to be associated with the arrest of cell growth. We stably transfected IGR-N-91 and SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells with an expression vector comprising IGFBP-6 cDNA, whose expression was placed under the control of the constitutive and ubiquitous cytomegalovirus promoter. Analyses of the cell cycle (flux cytofluorometry), mitogenic activity (radiolabeled thymidine incorporation), and the number of viable cells (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide test) showed that the mitogenic effects of serum, IGF-I, IGF-II, and des (1-3) IGF-I, a truncated IGF-I analogue with no affinity for IGFBP-6, were depressed in both transfected cell lines. With s.c. injection of transfected IGR-N-91 cells into nude mice, tumors developed in only 50-70% of cases, 1 or 2 weeks after those in controls, and were 60-90% smaller. Our findings show that IGFBP-6 influences neuroblastoma cell growth, both in vitro and in experimental xenograft development.

Insulin-like growth factors (IGF-I and IGF-II) stimulate proliferation and differentiation in many cell types. In biological fluids, they associate non-covalently with high-affinity binding proteins (IGFBPs) which control their bioavailability and modulate their action. We previously demonstrated that IGFBP-2, -4 and -6 are intimately involved in the growth of cells derived from human neuroblastomas. Here, we have investigated the effects of retinoic acid (RA), which induces differentiation in these cells, on the expression of IGFBPs secreted by SK-N-SH neuroblastoma cells. Analysis of transcriptional activity of the IGFBP-2, -4 and -6 genes in isolated nuclei (run-on experiments) showed that RA increased the transcriptional activity of the IGFBP-6 gene, reduced that of the IGFBP-4 gene and had no effect on that of the IGFBP-2 gene. Northern blot analysis following treatment with actinomycin D showed that RA increased the stability of IGFBP-6 mRNA by a factor of 2.6, decreased that of IGFBP-2 mRNA by a factor of 2.3 and failed to affect IGFBP-4 mRNA. Treatment of cells with cycloheximide indicated the involvement of labile proteins in the stabilization of these mRNAs the expression of which could be under the control of RA. The transcriptional and/or post-transcriptional mechanisms by which RA regulates each of the IGFBPs produced by SK-N-SH cells are therefore different. Such regulation may also reflect the state of differentiation of the neuroblastoma cells. With RA-induced differentiation, IGFBP-6 is strongly stimulated, whereas IGFBP-2 and IGFBP-4 are severely depressed, which would suggest that each IGFBP plays a specific role. Moreover, this regulation seems tissue-specific because it is different in other cell types.