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Desmosomes: new perpetrators in tumour suppression

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 11, pages 317–323 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Adherens junctions, which are intercellular adhesive complexes that are crucial for maintaining epithelial homeostasis, are downregulated in many cancers to promote tumour progression. However, the role of desmosomes — adhesion complexes that are related to adherens junctions — in carcinogenesis has remained elusive. Recent studies using mouse genetic approaches have uncovered a role for desmosomes in tumour suppression, demonstrating that desmosome downregulation occurs before that of adherens junctions to drive tumour development and early invasion, suggesting a two-step model of adhesion dysfunction in cancer progression.

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Figure 1: Desmosome deficiency can promote cancer in multiple ways.
Figure 2: The p53–p63 pathway regulates homeostasis in epithelial tissues.
Figure 3: Desmosome downregulation is one in a series of steps occurring during cancer development.

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Acknowledgements

R.L.D. is supported by the American Cancer Society New England-SpinOdyssey Postdoctoral Fellowship. L.D.A. is supported by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) (R01 CA093665). The authors would like to thank K. Bieging, D. Jiang and S. Baron for thoughtful comments on the manuscript. The authors apologize to those authors whose work could not be cited owing to space limitations.

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  1. Rachel L. Dusek and Laura D. Attardi are at The Departments of Radiation Oncology and Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Room 1255, 269 Campus Drive, Stanford, California 94305, USA.,

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Dusek, R., Attardi, L. Desmosomes: new perpetrators in tumour suppression. Nat Rev Cancer 11, 317–323 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3051

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