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MITF reprograms the extracellular matrix and focal adhesion in melanoma
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

MITF reprograms the extracellular matrix and focal adhesion in melanoma

Ramile Dilshat, Valerie Fock, Colin Kenny, Ilse Gerritsen, Romain Maurice Jacques Lasseur, Jana Travnickova, Ossia M. Eichhoff, Philipp Cerny, Katrin Moller, Sara Sigurbjornsdottir, …
eLife, Vol.10, pp.1-59
01/13/2021
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.63093
PMCID: PMC7857731
PMID: 33438577
url
https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.63093View
Published (Version of record) Open Access

Abstract

The microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is a critical regulator of melanocyte development and differentiation. It also plays an important role in melanoma where it has been described as a molecular rheostat that, depending on activity levels, allows reversible switching between different cellular states. Here, we show that MITF directly represses the expression of genes associated with the extracellular matrix (ECM) and focal adhesion pathways in human melanoma cells as well as of regulators of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) such as CDH2, thus affecting cell morphology and cell-matrix interactions. Importantly, we show that these effects of MITF are reversible, as expected from the rheostat model. The number of focal adhesion points increased upon MITF knockdown, a feature observed in drug-resistant melanomas. Cells lacking MITF are similar to the cells of minimal residual disease observed in both human and zebrafish melanomas. Our results suggest that MITF plays a critical role as a repressor of gene expression and is actively involved in shaping the microenvironment of melanoma cells in a cell-autonomous manner.
Biology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics Science & Technology

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