A novel basement membrane-induced gene identified in the human endometrial adenocarcinoma cell line HEC1B.

Cultured HEC1B human endometrial adenocarcinoma cells respond to reconstituted basement membrane (Matrigel) by morphological and functional differentiation in vitro. Our goal is to identify genes involved in this differentiation process. By means of rt-PCR, we were able to isolate the novel 2.4 kb Matrigel-induced transcript icb-1 containing an open reading frame predicting a 31.7 kDa protein. The time-dependent induction of icb-1 gene expression by basement membrane was confirmed by Northern blot experiments. In a data bank search, several EST homologues corresponding to the 3' untranslated region could be found. In summary, icb-1 as a new tool enables us to study molecular mechanisms of cell-matrix interactions contributing to carcinogenesis.