Description
Migratory embryonal neuroblasts give rise to several tissues, including the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Neuroblastomas are paediatric tumours of the peripheral SNS with a highly variable prognosis. We observed that high NOTCH3 expression in neuroblastomas correlated with a poor prognosis. Expression of a NOTCH3 transgene in neuroblastoma cells induced many motility genes and conferred a highly motile phenotype. Expression of these motility genes strongly correlated with NOTCH3 expression in neuroblastomas and many other tumours, suggesting a general role for NOTCH3 in regulation of these genes. Silencing of NOTCH3 or genes of the Notch-processing -secretase complex induced apoptosis in all neuroblastoma cell lines tested. These data suggest that NOTCH3 is a key-regulator of motility, and indispensable for survival of neuroblastoma cells.