Plakophillin Expression in Desmosomes of a Squamous Cell Carcinoma Line

Objectives: Desmosomes are prominent adhesive junctions found between epithelial cells and are comprised of transmembrane core consisting of desmosomal cadherins and a variety of cytoplasmic plaque proteins that associate with the keratin intermediate filament cytoskeleton. Plakophilins play an important role in clustering the desmosomal components at sites of cell-cell contact. The purpose of this research was to determine if there is a relationship between plakophilin isoform expression and cell adhesion and motility in a squamous cell carcinoma line.
Methods: Expression of 3 plakophilin isoforms were altered in UM-SCC-1 cells using short hairpin RNA constructs and the effects were observed using migration assays and time lapse videos.
Results: It was observed that there is a significant difference in cell motility and adhesion between the parental squamous cell carcinoma line and the plakophilin-1, plakophilin-2, and plakophilin-3 altered isoform lines. The Plakophilin-1isoform knock-down line demonstrated the greatest amount of motility as compared to the other lines.
Conclusions: When altered, plakophilin structures that comprise desmosomes in a squamous cell carcinoma line do affect the cell motility and adhesion of cells in the UM-SCC-1 cell line.