Spontaneous retinoic acid receptor beta 2 expression during mesoderm differentiation of P19 murine embryonal carcinoma cells.

Exposure of aggregated murine P19 embryonal carcinoma cells to dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) induces mesoderm and both embryonic cardiac and skeletal muscle differentiation, while retinoic acid (RA) is an inducer of neuroectodermal differentiation. P19 cells constitutively express the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RAR alpha) and RAR gamma mRNAs while RAR beta expression is induced by RA through a consensus RA-response element in the RAR beta promoter. In the present study we show that the RAR beta transcript is strongly expressed in both P19 cells and in a RA-nonresponsive derivative of P19 cells, called RAC65, during DMSO-induced mesoderm and muscle differentiation. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated that RAR beta 2 is the predominant isoform expressed in DMSO-differentiated cells, providing the first evidence for RA-independent regulation of RAR beta 2 transcript levels. Immunoblot analysis showed a 3-fold increase in the RAR beta protein expression over basal levels in differentiated cells, and immunohistochemistry indicated that all cells in the culture including muscle reacted positively for the RAR beta protein. RAR beta 2 transcript expression was differentiation-dependent and occurred without transactivation of a transfected RARE beta 2 reporter gene. Little transcription of the RAR beta gene was detected in nuclear run-off assays of undifferentiated P19 cells and only a small increase in transcription was observed in nuclei from DMSO-treated cells. RA treatment of P19 cells stably transfected with the RA-responsive element from the RAR beta gene showed that RAR beta 2 mRNA expression during DMSO differentiation was associated with increased sensitivity to RA. Together these data show that RAR beta 2 is expressed spontaneously in an apparently RA-independent manner in differentiating mesoderm and mesoderm derivatives, resulting in increased sensitivity to RA in these cells.

Deregulated expression of the retinoid X receptor alpha prevents muscle differentiation in P19 embryonal carcinoma cells.

We have studied the expression of the retinoid X receptor (RXR) family of receptors during the DMSO-induced differentiation of P19 murine embryonal carcinoma cells into mesoderm and muscle. RXR-alpha protein is weakly detectable in untreated P19 cells and in a mutant line of P19 cells (D3) that are resistant to DMSO-induced differentiation but begins to increase by day 3 and continues to rise gradually thereafter, whereas RXR-gamma protein is readily detected in P19 cells and decreases over the course of differentiation. Protein expression is uncoupled from mRNA levels, because DMSO induces a rapid, aggregation-independent, transient increase in RXR-alpha mRNA that diminishes by day 3 of differentiation. Thus, the expression of RXR-alpha protein is prevented at early times during DMSO-induced differentiation. Stable P19 cell clones that constitutively express RXR-alpha protein [P19(RXR-alpha)] are resistant to DMSO-induced differentiation associated with increased levels of oligonucleosomal-length DNA fragmentation. Loss of RXR-alpha expression after multiple passages results in a reversion to a DMSO-responsive phenotype. Id1 transcripts are present in P19 cells and are transiently decreased on day 2 of DMSO differentiation but remain elevated in DMSO-treated P19(RXR-alpha) and in P19 cells treated simultaneously with retinoic acid and DMSO. The mRNA for the mesoderm inducer protein Brachyury T was also deregulated in P19(RXR-alpha) cells and D3 cells compared with that of wild-type P19 cells. Together, these results show that expression of the RXR-alpha mRNA and protein in P19 cells is tightly regulated during the mesodermal/muscle differentiation of P19 cells, and that ectopic expression of the RXR-alpha protein prevents differentiation associated with increased cell death, prolonged expression of Brachyury T, and constitutive expression of Id1.