METCAM/MUC18 Decreases the Malignant Propensity of Human Ovarian Carcinoma Cells

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Guang-Jer Wu, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2018-09-29
• Publisher: MDPI
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © 2018 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms19102976
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 10
• Start Page: 2976
• End Page: 2976
• Grant/Funding Information: Financial support from Emory University School of Medicine (USA), Chung Yuan Christian University and grants from NSC (NSC-101-2320-B-033-001 and -003), Taiwan.
• Keywords: tumorigenicity; female athymic nude mice; mechanisms; SC & IP injections; human ovarian carcinoma cells; ascites formation; METCAM/MUC18; SK0OV-3 & BG-1 cell lines; EMT
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Oncology; Biology, Cell; Engineering, Biomedical

Abstract

METCAM/MUC18 is an integral membrane cell adhesion molecule (CAM) in the Ig-like gene super-family. It can carry out common functions of CAMs which is to perform intercellular interactions and interaction of cell with extracellular matrix in tumor microenvironment, to interact with various signaling pathways and to regulate general behaviors of cells. We and other two groups previously suggested that METCAM/MUC18 probably be utilized as a biomarker for predicting the malignant tendency of clinical ovarian carcinomas, since METAM/MUC18 expression appears to associate with the carcinoma at advanced stages. It has been further postulated to promote the malignant tendency of the carcinoma. However, our recent research results appear to support the conclusion that the above positive correlation is fortuitous; actually METCAM/MUC18 acts as a tumor and metastasis suppressor for the ovarian carcinoma cells. We also suggest possible mechanisms in the METCAM/MUC18-mediated early tumor development and metastasis of ovarian carcinoma. Moreover, we propose to employ recombinant METCAM/MUC18 proteins and other derived products as therapeutic agents to treat the ovarian cancer patients by decreasing the malignant potential of ovarian carcinoma.