How Are Pancreatic Stellate Cells Activated?

Main Category: GastroIntestinal / Gastroenterology
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 21 May 2008 - 4:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Supernants of cultured human pancreatic cancer cell line SW1990 could stimulate the proliferation of cultured human pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs), and this stimulation is partly via GAL-3 in the supernants which was expressed and secreted by SW1990 cells. Supernants of cultured human PSCs could stimulate the proliferation and invasion of SW1990 cells, and this was partly related to GAL-3 expressed by cancer cells, because GAL-3 monoclonal antibody could partly inhibit this stimulation.

This study, performed by a team led by Professor, Xing-Peng Wang , from Shanghai First People's Hospital, affiliated with Shanghai Jiaotong University is described in a research article published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers. Difficulty of early diagnosis and resistance to chemotherapy and radiotherapy leads to a low five-year survival rate. New therapeutic targets need to be found for pancreatic cancer treatment.

Previous studies showed GAL-3 was detected in pancreatic cancer tissues, but the role of GAL-3 in the progress of pancreatic cancer was not studied. This in vitro study showed pancreatic cancer cells could stimulate the proliferation of PSCs via GAL-3 and activated PSCs could promote the proliferation and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells partly via the interaction with GAL-3 expressed by cancer cells.

In the view of authors, inhibiting the activation of PSCs and stopping the interaction between pancreatic cancer cells and PSCs provides new hope for controlling pancreatic cancer. GAL-3 could be a new therapeutic target in pancreatic cancer treatment.

GAL-3 was firstly discovered in 1970s. In the late '80s and early '90s, research showed that the expression of GAL-3 was upregulated in cancers of the thyroid, liver, stomach, and tongue. In recent years, research also showed GAL-3 could promote the proliferation, invasion and metastasis of cancer cells.

Further research should be done to elucidate the stimulation mechanism of GAL-3 protein on the proliferation of PSCs, and to explain why the stimulation effect of PSCs on the proliferation and invasion of pancreatic cancer cells is related to GAL-3 expressed bay cancer cells.

----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------

Reference: Jiang HB, Xu M, Wang XP. Pancreatic stellate cells promote proliferation and invasiveness of human pancreatic cancer cells via galectin-3. Jiang HB, Xu M, Wang XP. Pancreatic stellate cells promote. World J Gastroenterol 2008;14(13):2023-2028 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/2023.asp

Correspondence to: Xing-Peng Wang, Ph D, Gastroenterology Department, Shanghai First People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University. Wujin Road 85, Shanghai 200080, China.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection for providing a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. The WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

About The WJG Press

The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Source: Jing Zhu
World Journal of Gastroenterology