Gatekeeping role of Nf2/Merlin in vascular tip EC induction through suppression of VEGFR2 internalization

Merlin determines fates of new blood-vessel cells

26 December 2022

A protein known as Merlin suppresses the formation of ‘tips’ of new blood vessels.

Blood vessels supply cells with oxygen and nutrients, but tumours can redirect blood vessels so that they nourish them.

Researchers thus want to discover how blood vessels form shoots that develop into new branches. Specifically, they desire to find out what induces new blood-vessel cells to become tip cells, which have many tentacle-like appendages, or relatively straight stem cells.

Now, a team led by researchers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea has found that Merlin prevents the internalization of a growth factor receptor, which in turn predisposes a new cell to be a stem rather than a tip cell.

The team implanted Merlin-deficient mice with human lung cancer and found that tumour growth was reduced by 80% compared with normal mice after three weeks.

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References

1. Science Advances 23 eabn2611 (2022). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn2611