CCN3 is a founding member of the CCN (Cyr61, Ctgf, Nov) family of cell growth and differentiation regulators. These secreted
proteins are key regulators in embryonic development, and are associated with severe pathologies including fibrotic diseases and
cancers. CCN3 was discovered as a MAV integration site in an avian
nephroblastoma. Previous work established that the amino-truncated
protein expressed in this
tumor was inducing morphological transformation of chicken embryo fibroblasts, whereas the full-length secreted
CCN3 protein was inhibiting cell growth. Amino-truncated variants were identified in
cancer cell lines. Since the lack of
signal peptide was expected to alter the fate of the truncated
proteins, we hypothesized that modifications of CCN3 subcellular addressing could be responsible for the oncogenic activities of CCN3. The CCN
proteins are composed of four structural modules (
IGFBP, TSP1, VWC, and CT). We report that amino-truncated variants of CCN3 are addressed to the nucleus and that the carboxyterminal (CT) module of CCN3 is responsible for the nuclear addressing. Furthermore, our data identify nuclear CCN3 variants as potential transcriptional regulators. In this context, the CT module confers on nuclear CCN3
proteins a negative regulatory effect on transcription. We propose that the nuclear localization of amino-truncated CCN3
proteins be correlated to oncogenicity.