Related Experiment Video For Pancreatic adenocarcinoma
Updated: Oct 2, 2025

Induction and Analysis of Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition
Published on: August 27, 2013
The Complement C3a-C3a Receptor Axis Regulates Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition by Activating the ERK Pathway in
Rei Suzuki1, Yoshinori Okubo2, Tadayuki Takagi2
1Department of Gastroenterology, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima, Japan; subaru@fmu.ac.jp.
Background:
We aimed to clarify the role of complement C3a and its receptor C3aR in progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).
Materials And Methods:
We evaluated the serum levels of C3 and C3a in patients with PDAC. C3aR expression in tissue was assessed using a tissue microarray. To confirm the protumoral effects of C3a in PDAC, we conducted in vitro experiments using PDAC cell lines (Panc-1 and MiaPaca-2) that exhibit high C3aR expression.
Results:
Serum levels of both C3 and C3a were higher in 26 patients with PDAC than in 28 nontumor-bearing controls. In the tissue microarray, we observed increased expression of C3aR in PDAC cells, especially in cases with metastatic lesions. In vitro experiments showed that C3a facilitated tumor cell proliferation, migration and invasion by activating the extracellular-regulated kinase signaling pathway and inducing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. Inhibition of the C3a-C3aR axis by pharmacological blockade and short-hairpin RNA-mediated knockdown of C3aR alleviated its protumoral effect.
Conclusion:
These findings provide a new approach for the development of treatments targeting the C3a-C3aR axis.
Related Concept Videos
Cadherins in Tissue Organization
Cell Sorting During Development
Cell sorting plays an...
MAPK Signaling Cascades
PI3K/mTOR/AKT Signaling Pathway
Metastasis
Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition
The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition or EMT is a developmental process commonly observed in wound healing, embryogenesis, and cancer metastasis. EMT is induced by transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) or receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) ligands, which further...
Role of Ephrin-Eph Signalling in Intestinal Stem Cell Renewal
Interactions Between Signaling Pathways
Convergence and divergence, and cross-talk between signaling pathways
Two distinct signaling pathways can converge on a single functional unit, which may either be a single protein or a complex of proteins. The response is either functionally distinct or synergistic between the two pathways but different from the response...

