Sakakura T, Kusakabe M
Tsukuba Life Science Center, Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Ibaraki, Japan.
Perspect Dev Neurobiol. 1994;2(1):111-16.
Histological and biochemical analyses of tenascin in various human tumors have indicated that tenascin is expressed in various cancer stroma and increased in the serum, getting strong with advancement of its malignancy. Of interest, the prognostic analysis of breast and colon cancers revealed favorable survival and no lymphogenous metastasis in patients whose cancer expressed tenascin strongly. Injection of tenascin nonproducing A431 human epidermoid cancer cells into nude mice resulted in tenascin production by these cells, suggesting cancer cells can make tenascin if necessary. Thus, both carcinoma and adjacent stroma cells may produce tenascin to coordinate the microenvironment surrounding the cancer tissues. Several tenascin variants have been clearly demonstrated to date. With these findings in mind, we would propose that epithelial tenascin supports the carcinoma cell outgrowth, whereas stromal tenascin may block cancer invasion by covering the cancer nest. No obvious phenotype in tenascin gene knockout mice would indicate that tenascin is functionally redundant in developmental processes, yet it may well be very important in progression of cancer.
对多种人类肿瘤中腱生蛋白的组织学和生化分析表明，腱生蛋白在各种癌基质中表达，且血清中含量增加，随着恶性程度的进展而升高。有趣的是，对乳腺癌和结肠癌的预后分析显示，癌组织中腱生蛋白表达强烈的患者生存率良好且无淋巴转移。将不产生腱生蛋白的A431人表皮样癌细胞注射到裸鼠体内后，这些细胞产生了腱生蛋白，这表明癌细胞在必要时可以产生腱生蛋白。因此，癌细胞和相邻的基质细胞都可能产生腱生蛋白来协调癌组织周围的微环境。迄今为止，已经明确证实了几种腱生蛋白变体。基于这些发现，我们提出上皮腱生蛋白支持癌细胞生长，而基质腱生蛋白可能通过覆盖癌巢来阻止癌症侵袭。腱生蛋白基因敲除小鼠没有明显的表型，这表明腱生蛋白在发育过程中功能冗余，但它在癌症进展中可能非常重要。
