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Updated: Jun 14, 2026

The Colon-26 Carcinoma Tumor-bearing Mouse as a Model for the Study of Cancer Cachexia
Published on: November 30, 2016
Are tumoral factors responsible for host tissue wasting in cancer cachexia?
1Nutritional Biomedicine, School of Life & Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, B4 7ET, UK. m.j.tisdale@aston.ac.uk
Abstract:
Both cytokines and tumor factors have been implicated in tissue loss in cancer cachexia. Loss of adipose tissue is most likely due to the tumor (and host) factor zinc-alpha2-glycoprotein because of its direct lipolytic effect, ability to sensitize adipocytes to lipolytic stimuli and increased expression in cachexia. TNF-alpha and the tumor factor proteolysis-inducing factor are the major contenders for skeletal muscle atrophy; both increase protein degradation through the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway and depress protein synthesis through phosphorylation of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 alpha. However, while most studies report proteolysis-inducing factor levels to correlate with the appearance of cachexia, there is some disagreement regarding a correlation between serum levels of TNF-alpha and weight loss. Furthermore, only antagonists to proteolysis inducing factor prevent muscle loss in cancer patients, suggesting that tumor factors are the most important.
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