Despite lacking transmembrane or intracellular domains, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins can modulate intracellular signaling events, in many cases through aggregation within membrane "lipid raft" microdomains. CEACAM6 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol-linked cell surface protein of importance in the anchorage-independent survival and metastasis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells. We examined the effects of antibody-mediated cross-linking of CEACAM6 on intracellular signaling events and anchorage-independent survival of the CEACAM6-overexpressing pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma cell line, BxPC3. CEACAM6 cross-linking increased c-Src activation and induced tyrosine phosphorylation of p125 FAK focal adhesion kinase. Focal adhesion kinase phosphorylation was dependent on c-Src kinase activation, for which caveolin-1 was required. CEACAM6 cross-linking induced a significant increase in cellular resistance to anoikis. These observations represent the first characterization of the mechanism through which this important cell surface oncoprotein influences intracellular signaling events and hence malignant cellular behavior.
CEACAM61 is a glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored cell surface protein that is overexpressed in a variety of human malignancies, including pancreatic adenocarcinoma (1, 2). This immunoglobulin superfamily member is emerging as an important determinant of a variety of aspects of the malignant cellular phenotype (1-3). We reported previously that levels of CEACAM6 expression modulate the susceptibility of pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells to anoikis (2). Normal epithelial cells require anchorage to an extracellular matrix for growth, survival, and differentiation. Resistance to anoikis, a subset of apoptosis induced by inadequate or inappropriate cell-substrate contact in normal cells, is a property of transformed cells that is associated with enhanced tumorigenesis and metastatic ability. Despite clear indications of its important role in cancer cell biology, the mechanisms through which CEACAM6 influences intracellular signal transduction remain poorly understood.Despite lacking transmembrane and intracellular domains, several GPI-anchored proteins, including CEACAM family members, are able to influence intracellular events and have been implicated in transmembrane signaling via tyrosine kinases (4 -7). GPI-anchored proteins are known to exist in clusters and form microdomains at the surface of the plasma membrane, referred to as "lipid rafts" (8). These microdomains appear to be important for GPI-anchored protein signal transduction. A number of signal transduction components, including Src family tyrosine kinases, are associated with lipid rafts, and cross-linking of cell surface molecules by a variety of techniques has proven to be a useful tool for exploring the functional roles of raft-associated proteins (9 -14).Here, we examine the effects of antibody-mediated crosslinking of CEACAM6 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells. We determine the effects of CEACAM6 cross-linking on ...