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Article
Nature Medicine 13, 1211 - 1218 (2007)
Published online: 30 September 2007 | doi:10.1038/nm1649
Mast cells are required for angiogenesis and macroscopic expansion of Myc-induced pancreatic islet tumors
Laura Soucek1, Elizabeth R Lawlor1,3, Darya Soto2, Ksenya Shchors1, Lamorna Brown Swigart1 & Gerard I Evan1
Abstract
An association between inflammation and cancer has long been recognized, but the cause and effect relationship linking the two remains unclear. Myc is a pleiotropic transcription factor that is overexpressed in many human cancers and instructs many extracellular aspects of the tumor tissue phenotype, including remodeling of tumor stroma and angiogenesis. Here we show in a 
-cell tumor model that activation of Myc in vivo triggers rapid recruitment of mast cells to the tumor site—a recruitment that is absolutely required for macroscopic tumor expansion. In addition, treatment of established -cell tumors with a mast cell inhibitor rapidly triggers hypoxia and cell death of tumor and endothelial cells. Inhibitors of mast cell function may therefore prove therapeutically useful in restraining expansion and survival of pancreatic and other cancers.
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Mast cells promote atherosclerosis by releasing proinflammatory cytokinesNature Medicine Letter
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