Stimulation of the aberrant expression of a paraneoplastic antigen, recoverin, in small cell lung cancer cell lines

Recoverin, a retina-specific Ca2+-binding protein, is one of the paraneoplastic antigens (PNAs) which are normally present in neurons, but can also be aberrantly expressed in malignant tumors localized outside the nervous system. In this study, we have analyzed 16 small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) and 12 non-small cell lung carcinoma cell lines and found that none of them is capable of expressing recoverin in vitro. However, two small cell lung carcinoma lines, NCI-H69 and NCI-H82, became recoverin-positive after cultivation in the presence of butyrate. Recoverin expression in the butyrate-treated cells has been detected by immunoblotting with polyclonal (monospecific) antibodies against recoverin and confirmed by the analysis of recoverin mRNA expression. To our knowledge, this work is the first to demonstrate stimulation of the aberrant expression of recoverin in cancer cell lines in vitro. This result opens the way to investigation of the mechanisms underlying the aberrant expression of recoverin, as well as other paraneoplastic antigens, in tumor cells.