NYMC Faculty Publications
LITAF, a BCL6 Target Gene, Regulates Autophagy in Mature B-cell Lymphomas
Author Type(s)
Faculty
Additional Author Affiliation
Touro College of Dental Medicine at NYMC
DOI
10.1111/bjh.12440
Journal Title
British Journal of Haematology
First Page
621
Last Page
630
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2013
Department
Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology
Keywords
Autophagy, B-Lymphocyte Subsets, Cell Line, Tumor, DNA-Binding Proteins, Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic, Humans, Introns, Lymphoma, B-Cell, Neoplasm Proteins, Nuclear Proteins, Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-6, Transcription Factors, Transcription, Genetic, Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha
Disciplines
Medicine and Health Sciences
Abstract
We have previously reported that LITAF is silenced by promoter hypermethylation in germinal centre-derived B-cell lymphomas, but beyond these data the regulation and function of lipopolysaccharide-induced tumour necrosis factor (TNF) factor (LITAF) in B cells are unknown. Gene expression and immunohistochemical studies revealed that LITAF and BCL6 show opposite expression in tonsil B-cell subpopulations and B-cell lymphomas, suggesting that BCL6 may regulate LITAF expression. Accordingly, BCL6 silencing increased LITAF expression, and chromatin immunoprecipitation and luciferase reporter assays demonstrated a direct transcriptional repression of LITAF by BCL6. Gain- and loss-of-function experiments in different B-cell lymphoma cell lines revealed that, in contrast to its function in monocytes, LITAF does not induce lipopolysaccharide-mediated TNF secretion in B cells. However, gene expression microarrays defined a LITAF-related transcriptional signature containing genes regulating autophagy, including MAP1LC3B (LC3B). In addition, immunofluorescence analysis co-localized LITAF with autophagosomes, further suggesting a possible role in autophagy modulation. Accordingly, ectopic LITAF expression in B-cell lymphoma cells enhanced autophagy responses to starvation, which were impaired upon LITAF silencing. Our results indicate that the BCL6-mediated transcriptional repression of LITAF may inhibit autophagy in B cells during the germinal centre reaction, and suggest that the constitutive repression of autophagy responses in BCL6-driven lymphomas may contribute to lymphomagenesis.
Recommended Citation
Bertolo, C., Roa, S., Sagardoy, A., Mena-Varas, M., Robles, E. F., Martinez-Ferrandis, J. I., Sagaert, X., Tousseyn, T., Orta, A., Lossos, I. S., Amar, S., Natkunam, Y., Briones, J., Melnick, A., Malumbres, R., & Martinez-Climent, J. A. (2013). LITAF, a BCL6 Target Gene, Regulates Autophagy in Mature B-cell Lymphomas. British Journal of Haematology, 162 (5), 621-630. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjh.12440
