Mutations in the Hippo signalling pathway cause unusual organ growth in flies. After a good deal of intensive research, its been shown that Hippo genes are responsible for suppressing organ growth in development, increasing cell death and slowing proliferation.
Given this role, its not surprising that Hippo genes are also important in cancer. I'm not an expert in cancer, but a quick search turned up an association of cancer with the Yki (YAP in mammals) transcription activator, an oncogene from the Hippo Pathway. YAP suppression has been linked to cancerous growth. And its also been shown that YAP is amplified in oral squamous cell carcinoma cells. This last is circumstantial but consistent with what we know about YAP.
No comments:
Post a Comment