ENTEROCYTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF THE HUMAN CACO-2 CELL-LINE IS CORRELATED WITH DOWN-REGULATION OF FIBRONECTIN AND LAMININ

Human intestinal Caco-2 cells were used to examine the expression of fibronectin (FN) and laminin (LN) during enterocytic differentiation. Combination of immunoprecitation, Western and Northern blotting revealed that Caco-2 cells expressed a classical FN and a variant form of LN: besides B1 and B2 chains, LN contained a 350-kDa heavy chain instead of the 400-kDa A chain. Throughout Caco-2 cell differentiation, FN and LN synthesis decreased at both mRNA and protein levels. These data indicate that enterocytic differentiation involves bath transcriptional and/or post-transcriptional down-regulation of FN and LN gene expression.