Mislocalization of the exitatory amino-acid transporters (EAATs) in human astrocytoma and non-astrocytoma cancer cells: effect of the cell confluence

BACKGROUND: Astrocytomas are cancers of the brain in which high levels of extracellular glutamate plays a critical role in tumor growth and resistance to conventional treatments. This is due for part to a decrease in the activity of the glutamate transporters, i.e. the Excitatory Amino Acid Transporters or EAATs, in relation to their nuclear mislocalization in astrocytoma cells. Although non-astrocytoma cancers express EAATs, the localization of EAATs and the handling of L-glutamate in that case have not been investigated. METHODS: We looked at the cellular localization and activity of EAATs in human astrocytoma and non-astrocytoma cancer cells by immunofluorescence, cell fractionation and L-glutamate transport studies. RESULTS: We demonstrated that the nuclear mislocalization of EAATs was not restricted to astrocytoma and happened in all sub-confluent non-astrocytoma cancer cells we tested. In addition, we found that cell-cell contact caused the relocalization of EAATs from the nuclei to the plasma membrane in all human cancer cells tested, except astrocytoma. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our results demonstrated that the mislocalization of the EAATs and its associated altered handling of glutamate are not restricted to astrocytomas but were also found in human non-astrocytoma cancers. Importantly, we found that a cell contact-dependent signal caused the relocalization of EAATs at the plasma membrane at least in human non-astrocytoma cancer cells, resulting in the correction of the altered transport of glutamate in such cancer cells but not in astrocytoma.