Wenjie Wang
Soochow University, China
Title: Proteomic profiling of zinc-induced skin cell proliferation: Activation of β-catenin pathway
Biography
Biography: Wenjie Wang
Abstract
Zinc is an essential micronutrient that plays important roles in protein structure, catalysis, and gene regulation. It is required for the homeostasis of human skin. However, the effect of zinc on skin cell proliferation and its underlying mechanisms remain elusive. We found that exposure to zinc for 30 min was sufficient to induce significant cell proliferation in human keratinocyte HaCaT and the fibroblast WS1 cells. To investigate the molecular changes underlying zinc-induced cell proliferation, we analyzed protein expression in the control and zinc-treated cells via iTRAQ protein profiling and identified 16 upregulated and 64 downregulated proteins between zinc-treated and the control HaCaT cells (fold-change > 1.2). Through bioinformatic analysis, common motifs that associated with transcriptional factors or co-activators were identified, including β-catenin, YY1 and E2F1. Among them, the β-catenin pathway was further investigated. Zinc induced the nuclear translocation of β-catenin and increased β-catenin-responsive luciferase activity in skin cells. The growth advantage of zinc was abrogated by siRNA targeting β-catenin or XAV-939, an inhibitor of the β-catenin pathway. Moreover, zinc-induced resistance to H2O2 was significantly decreased by XAV-939. Taken together, our findings illustrate the molecular changes by zinc-induced proliferation and that β-catenin mediates the pro-proliferative role of zinc in skin cells.