Cathepsin E (CatE), an aspartic protease, has a limited distribution in certain cell types such as gastric cells. CatE is not detectable in the normal brain, whereas it is increasingly expressed in damaged neurons and activated microglia of the pathological brain. Neurons expressing high levels of CatE showed apparent morphological changes, including a marked shrinkage of the cytoplasmic region and beading of neurites, suggesting neuronal damage. The intracellular level of CatE in neurons is strictly regulated at both transcriptional and translational levels. Although the up-regulation of CatE may cause pathological changes in neurons, little information is available about the precise outcome of the increased expression of CatE in neurons. In this study, we have attempted to clarify the outcome of up-regulated CatE gene expression in neurons using the P19 cell neuronal differentiation after the overexpression of CatE. We unexpectedly found that the overexpression of CatE interfered with neuronal differentiation of P19 cells through an impairment of cell aggregate formation. Pepstatin A, an aspartic protease inhibitor, restored the impaired cell aggregation of P19/CatE cells. The small number of P19 cells differentiated into neurons had abnormal morphology characterized by their fusiform cell bodies with short processes. Furthermore, CatE proteolytically cleaved the extracellular domain of N-cadherin. These observations suggest that the overexpression of CatE interferes with neuronal differentiation of P19 cells through an impairment of cell aggregate formation, possibly through proteolytic degradation of N-cadherin.
