Metastasis Triggered by Two Signaling Molecules

The study was published in the July 1, 2002, advance online issue of Nature Cell Biology.

Using a mouse tumor cell line, investigators from the University of California, San Francisco (USA; www.ucsf.edu), showed that activating Smad2 can prompt the migration of tumor cells to distant sites. Increasing the amount of H-ras converts epithelial-like cells into mobile fibroblastoid-like cells. A further increase of Smad2 allows the cells to enter blood vessels and migrate to other tissues.

"Our results provide a new view of ras and Smad cooperating to promote tumor development,” the researchers said. "We propose that differing threshold levels of Smad2 and Ras activity are important for accomplishing the sequential steps of metastasis and suggest that this pathway will provide important targets for drug discovery, which should lead to new possibilities for the control of tumor spread.”



Related Links:
Univ. of CA, SF