Polyhalogenated aromatic hydrocarbons, of which 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-p-dioxin (TCDD) is the prototype compound, elicit a variety of toxic, teratogenic, and carcinogenic responses in exposed animals and in humans.In cultured cells, TCDD shows marked effects on the regulation of cell cycle progression, including thymocyte apoptosis, induction of keratinocyte proliferation and terminal differentiation, and inhibition of estrogendependent proliferation in breast cancer cells. The presence of an LXCXE domain in the dioxin aromatic hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), suggested that the effects of TCDD on cell cycle regulation might be mediated by protein-protein interactions between AHR and the retinoblastoma protein (RB). Using the yeast two-hybrid system, AHR and RB were in fact shown to bind to each other. In vitro pull-down experiments with truncated AHR peptides indicated that at least two separate AHR domains form independent complexes with hypophosphorylated RB. Coimmunoprecipitation of whole cell lysates from human breast carcinoma MCF-7 cells, which express both proteins endogenously, revealed that AHR associates with RB in vivo only after receptor transformation and nuclear translocation. However, the AHR nuclear translocator and transcriptional heterodimerization partner, is not required for (nor is it a part of) the AHR⅐RB complexes detected in vitro. Ectopic expression of AHR and RB in human osteosarcoma SAOS-2 cells, which lack endogenous expression of both proteins, showed that AHR synergizes with RB to repress E2F-dependent transcription and to induce cell cycle arrest. Furthermore, AHR partly blocked T-antigen-mediated reversal of RB-dependent transcriptional repression. These results uncover a potential function for the AHR in cell cycle regulation and suggest that this function may be that of serving as an environmental sensor that signals cell cycle arrest when cells are exposed to certain environmental toxicants.

important to a variety of cellular functions. GSLs and gangliosides are synthesized at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and are remodeled during transit from cis to trans Golgi by a series of glycosyl-and sialyl-transferases. These are then transported to the intracellular compartments and the plasma membrane where they become enriched in microdomains and membrane bilayers. During plasma membrane turnover, GSLs and gangliosides can be internalized and partially or completely degraded in the endosomal/lysosomal system to sphingosine and free fatty acids that are then transported or fl ipped across late endosomal and lysosomal membranes for recycling or for use as signaling molecules ( 2, 3 ). GSL metabolic pathwaysGSL biosynthesis begins with condensation of serine and palmitoyl-CoA catalyzed by serine-palmitoyltransferase (SPT) on the cytoplasmic face of the ER, leading to de novo biosynthesis of ceramide, the core of GSLs (

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