Involvement of Claudin-1 in the β-Catenin/Tcf Signaling Pathway and its Frequent Upregulation in Human Colorectal Cancers

Accumulation of β-catenin in cytoplasm and nuclei is frequently observed in a wide variety of tumors arising, for example, in the colon, liver, uterus, or brain. In association with Tcf/LEF transcription factors, β-catenin regulates expression of genes involved in the Wnt/wingless signaling pathway, but the precise mechanisms are unclear. Here we report evidence that the claudin-1 (CLDN1) gene is one of the genes regulated by β-catenin. Not only did expression of CLDN1 decrease significantly in response to reduction of intracellular β-catenin by adenovirus-mediated transfer of wild-type APC into the APC-deficient colon cancer cells, but also two putative Tcf4 binding elements in the 5′ flanking region of CLDN1 were confirmed to be responsible for activating its transcription. We documented increased expression of CLDN1 in all 16 primary colorectal cancers we examined, compared with adjacent noncancerous mucosae. Furthermore, immunohistochemical staining demonstrated that claudin-1 was weakly stained at apical boarder of lateral membrane of noncancerous epithelial cells and that it was strongly stained at all cell–cell boundaries and in the cytoplasms of cancer cells. Our results imply that claudin-1 is involved in the β-catenin-Tcf/LEF signaling pathway, and that increased expression of claudin-1 may have some role in colorectal tumorigenesis.