Protein TM4SF5 lets tumor cells grow out of control

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A characteristic of tumor cells is that they grow in an uncontrolled manner. One reason for this is that although normal cells stop growing when they contact one another (a process known as contact inhibition), tumor cells do not.

New data, generated by Jung Weon Lee and colleagues, at Seoul National University, Republic of Korea, has now indicated that the protein TM4SF5 has a crucial role in the ability of human hepatocarcinoma cells to overcome contact inhibition and grow in an uncontrolled manner.

In the study, TM4SF5 was found to be overexpressed in human hepatocarcinoma tissue. This overexpression mediated cellular effects that caused the tumor cells to undergo a process known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and resulted in uncontrolled growth, both in vitro and when the cells were injected into mice. The importance of these data, which imply TM4SF5 has a crucial role in cancer progression, is discussed in an accompanying commentary by Ruth Muschel and Annamaria Gal from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.-Journal of Clinical Investigation

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Posted March 21st, 2008 by harminka

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