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
