Lecture 10 - 12 Flashcards
What are the two kinds of inflammation?
Acute or chronic
What occurs during the resolution of an inflammation?
The levels of proinflammatory mediators and infiltrated immune cells decline
What is chronic inflammation?
It is caused by infectious or autoimmune diseases. It is a prolonged abnormal immune response that is not resolved by the normal feedback mechanisms
- associated with the development of 30% of malignancies worldwide
What is chronic inflammation thought to promote in tumours?
- tumour initiation, progression and metastasis by providing a tumour-supporting microenvironment
What is an important concept about metastatic spread?
Metastatic spread is responsible for ~90% of cancer-related mortality
What is responsible for metastatic spread?
Changes in genes controlling cell-cell and cell matrix interactions (eg., E-cadherin, integrins)
What is E-cadherin?
A transmembrane protein that mediates cell-cell interactions
What is tumour progression associated with?
- the loss of E-cadherin function and the transition to a more motile and invasive phenotype
- cell pseudopod movement
- requires the coordinated regulation of both E-cadherin-mediated cell-cell adhesions and integrin-mediated adhesions that contact the surrounding ECM
How is the regulation of E-cadherin and integrin dynamic?
Cells respond to external cues from the tumour microenvironment that regulate polarity, directional migration and invasion
How would a loss of cadherin junction occur?
E-cadherins are supported by p120, alpha and beta catenin. If any of the catenins lose their function, then there is a loss of cadherin junction
How does cadherin junctions protect the cell from cancer?
- protects from growth factors effecting the cell due to contact inhibition
- stays differentiated
What are integrins?
Heterodimeric cell-surface glycoproteins that serve to mediate cell-ECM interactions
- like cues from the extracellular environment to the actin cytoskeleton
What is EMT?
- epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT)
- a process normally involved in embryonic morphogenesis and wound healing/repair
- cells acquire ability to invade, resist apoptosis and to disseminate
- controlled by several TF (eg., Slug)
What is Slug?
- a zinc finger transcriptional repressor which down-regulates expression of E-cadherin
What does Slug do the cell?
- Causes a loss of adheren junctions and expression of matrix degrading enzymes, increased motility and resistance to apoptosis