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Spheroid Assay to Measure TGF-β-induced Invasion
Published on: November 16, 2011
Potential oncogenic action of tenascin-C in tumorigenesis
1Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, Departement fiir Klinisch Biologische Wissenschaften (DKBW), Center for Biomedicine, University Basel, Mattenstrasse 28, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland. gertraud.orend@unibas.ch
Abstract:
The prominent expression of tenascin-C in the stroma of most solid tumors, first observed in the mid 1980s, implicates tenascin-C in tumorigenesis. This is also supported by in vitro experiments that demonstrate the capacity of tenascin-C to stimulate tumor growth by various mechanisms including promotion of proliferation, escaping immuno-surveillance and positively influencing angiogenesis. However, tumorigenesis in tenascin-C knock-out mice is not significantly different from that observed in control animals. Perhaps this is not unexpected if one considers that tenascin-C may act as an oncogene. The potential role of tenascin-C in tumorigenesis through its oncogenic action on cellular signaling will be discussed in this review, including how tenascin-C mediated tumor cell detachment might affect genome stability.
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