E-cadherin, as a negative regulator of invasive behavior of human trophoblast cells, is down-regulated by cyclosporin A via epidermal growth factor/extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase signaling pathway.

Our previous study has demonstrated cyclosporin A (CsA) promotes the invasiveness of human first-trimester trophoblast cells. In the present study, we further investigated the intracellular signaling pathway responsible for the improvements in CsA-induced invasiveness of human trophoblast cells. We showed that CsA down-regulated E-cadherin transcription and translation in human primary cultured trophoblast cells and choriocarcinoma cell line JEG-3. U0126, an inhibitor of extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (ERK), attenuated the CsA-induced transcriptional repressor SNAI2 (also called Slug) expression and restored E-cadherin expression inhibited by CsA in JEG-3 cells. We further demonstrated that CsA amplified epidermal growth factor (EGF)-stimulated EGF receptor (EGFR) tyrosine phosphorylation in JEG-3 cells, and inhibition of EGFR tyrosine phosphorylation by AG1478, an EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor, abolished the down-regulation of E-cadherin by CsA through ERK signaling pathway. Moreover, our data showed that E-cadherin expression was negatively correlated to the invasiveness of JEG-3 cells, and CsA could reverse the decreased invasiveness of JEG-3 cells that resulted from E-cadherin overexpression. In conclusion, these observations indicate that CsA may decrease E-cadherin expression via EGFR/ERK signaling pathway and, ultimately, contribute to the invasiveness improvement of human trophoblast cells.