Yanfeng Liu

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) enhances gastric carcinoma invasiveness via integrin alpha(v)beta6

Integrins play an important role in tumor metastasis induced by vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). However, in the case of gastric cancer, the precise role of VEGF in regulating integrin alphavbeta6 is unclear. In this study, we found that most of the alphavbeta6 integrin-positive gastric cancer tissues were also VEGF-positive. Furthermore, when gastric carcinoma cells were exposed to VEGF, expression of alphavbeta6 integrin was up-regulated and the extracellular signal-related kinase (ERK) pathway was activated. When integrin alphavbeta6 was blocked either with beta6 siRNA or anti-alphavbeta6 antibody, the migration of tumor cells normally induced by VEGF, as well as the activation of ERK, were markedly inhibited. Blocking the ERK signaling pathway significantly inhibited cell mobility. Taken together, the data suggest that VEGF is critical to the invasive process in human gastric cancer and that this occurs via up-regulation of integrin alphavbeta6 expression and activation of ERK.

Clinical significance of integrin β6 as a tumor recurrence factor in follicular thyroid carcinoma

Overexpression of integrin β6 plays an important role in a variety of malignant tumor invasion and metastasis.