The degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM) by matrix metalloproteases is crucial in physiological and pathological cell invasion alike. Degradation occurs at specific sites where invasive cells make contact with the ECM via specialized plasma membrane protrusions termed invadopodia. Herein, we show that the dynamin 2 (Dyn2), a GTPase implicated in the control of actindriven cytoskeletal remodeling events and membrane transport, is necessary for focalized matrix degradation at invadopodia. Dynamin was inhibited by using two approaches: 1) expression of dominant negative GTPase-impaired or proline-rich domain-deleted Dyn2 mutants; and 2) inhibition of the dynamin regulator calcineurin by cyclosporin A. In both cases, the number and extension of ECM degradation foci were drastically reduced. To understand the site and mechanism of dynamin action, the cellular structures devoted to ECM degradation were analyzed by correlative confocal light-electron microscopy. Invadopodia were found to be organized into a previously undescribed ECM-degradation structure consisting of a large invagination of the ventral plasma membrane surface in close spatial relationship with the Golgi complex. Dyn2 seemed to be concentrated at invadopodia.
INTRODUCTIONDegradation of the extracellular matrix (ECM) is a critical process during cell invasion in both physiological and pathological processes such as morphogenesis, differentiation, cell migration, apoptosis, and tumor invasion (reviewed in Basbaum and Werb, 1996). For example, metastatic tumor cells need to overcome the natural barriers impeding access to vascular or lymphatic pathways and to alter the extracellular environment to allow cancer growth in distant locations (reviewed in Foda and Zucker, 2001). This requires the direct participation of released and exposed proteases such as urokinase-type plasminogen activator, lysosomal proteases, and matrix metalloproteases (MMPs); MMPs in particular are thought to play a major role in the degradation of ECM. To reach the plasma membrane, proteases must be transported and processed by the secretory pathway. Although the mechanisms of release, intracellular trafficking and sorting of lysosomal proteases (reviewed in Dell' Angelica and Payne, 2001) and their regulation (Radons et al., 1994;Baldassarre et al., 2000), have been studied and partly elucidated, surprisingly, much less is known concerning the trafficking of the functionally more crucial MMPs, especially the membrane-bound forms (Hotary et al., 2000). Because the focalized delivery/exposure of MMPs is likely to be a crucial factor in physiological ECM remodeling events and cell invasive behavior (Basbaum and Werb, 1996), a key feature of the trafficking of MMPs is their targeting to specialized plasma membrane structures, where ECM degradation occurs (Chen, 1989;Mueller and Chen, 1991;Chen and Wang, 1999). At the ultrastructural level, these structures have been suggested to consist of 200-nmwide and up to 3-m-long membrane protrusions extending into the matrix (Mueller and Ch...