Ether à go-go (
EAG) potassium channels possess oncogenic properties and have gained great interest as research tools for
cancer detection and
therapy. Besides, EAG electrophysiological properties are regulated through the cell cycle and determined by cytoskeletal interactions. Thus, because of the pivotal role of extracellular matrix (ECM) and cytoskeleton in
cancer progression, we studied the effect of ECM components on adhesion, viability, actin organization and EAG currents in wild-type CHO cells (CHO-wt) and cells expressing human EAG channels (CHO-hEAG). At short incubation times, adhesion and viability of CHO-hEAG cells grown on
collagen,
heparin or poly-
lysine were lower than CHO-wt cells, however, only CHO-hEAG sustained growing under total serum
starvation. CHO-hEAG cells grown on poly-
lysine did not organize their cytoskeleton but when grown on
collagen or
fibronectin displayed lamellipodia and stress fibers, respectively. Interestingly, EAG expressing cells displayed special actin structures suggesting a dynamic actin cytoskeleton, such structures were not exhibited by wild-type cells. EAG current density was significantly lower in cells grown on
collagen at short incubation times. Finally, we studied potential associations between hEAG channels and
integrins or actin filaments by confocal microscopy. No association between beta1-integrins and hEAG channels was found, however, a very strong co-localization was observed between hEAG channels and actin filaments, supported by immunoblot experiments in which hEAG channels were found in the insoluble fraction (associated to cytoskeleton). Our results suggest ECM components as potential modulators of oncogenic human-EAG expressing cells and emphasize the relationship between
potassium channels, cytoskeleton, ECM and
cancer.