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Metastasis

A key to metastasis

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 4, page 94 (2004)Cite this article

Glenn Merlino and colleagues used a rhabdomyosarcoma mouse model to establish cell lines that were either highly or poorly metastatic when injected into mice. They then performed microarray expression profiling to identify genes that were differentially expressed. Two genes that were highly overexpressed — confirmed by western and northern blots — in the metastatic cell lines were those that encode ezrin and the homeoprotein transcription factor Six1.

But do they really contribute to metastasis? Overexpression of either gene in poorly metastatic cell lines increased their metastatic potential in mice by several fold. Similarly, disruption of the genes in highly metastatic cell lines diminished their metastatic ability. Interestingly, overexpression of Six1 seems to induce ezrin expression, forging a link between these two metastasis factors. Human rhabdomyosarcomas also have increased expression of these factors, which correlates with the disease stage.

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References

ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPERS

  1. Yu, Y. et al. Expression profiling identifies the cytoskeletal organizer ezrin and the developmental homeoprotein Six-1 as key metastatic regulators. Nature Med. 4 Jan 2004 (doi: 10.1038/nm966)

  2. Khanna, C. et al. The membrane–cytoskeleton linker ezrin is necessary for osteosarcoma metastasis. Nature Med. 4 Jan 2004 (doi:10.1038/nm982)

FURTHER READING

  1. McClatchey, A. I. Merlin and ERM proteins: unappreciated roles in cancer development? Nature Rev. Cancer 3, 877–883 (2003)

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Authors
  1. Emma Greenwood
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Greenwood, E. A key to metastasis. Nat Rev Cancer 4, 94 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1288

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc1288

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