Abstract
Adhesion receptors play crucial roles in the neoplastic transformation of normal cells through induction of cancer-specific cellular behaviour and morphology. This implies that cancer cells likely express and utilize a distinct set of adhesion receptors during carcinogenesis. Colon cancer is an excellent model system for the study of this process, since both molecular genetic and morphological changes have been well established for this disease. We recently reported increased expression of the cell surface adhesion receptor, syndecan-2, in several colon carcinoma cell lines. Indeed, increased syndecan-2 expression was necessary for tumourigenic activity, suggesting that syndecan-2 might have value as both a new diagnostic marker and a possible therapeutic target. Here, we review recent advances in understanding the role of syndecan-2 in the carcinogenesis of colon cells, and discuss a leading role for this molecule in a new era for colon cancer treatment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 319-326 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Molecular Histology |
| Volume | 35 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2004 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by a research grant from the Ministry of Health and Welfare (02-PJ1-PG3-20905-0012). H. Park was supported by a fellowship from the Brain Korea 21 project.
