Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UNIPROT:P14210 (hepatocyte growth factor)
 6,664 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The selectively permeable basement membranes and the associated extracellular matrix of sea urchin embryos can be obtained intact. Their exterior surfaces have been used as invasion substrates for metastatic melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma, and fibrosarcoma cells, for primary squamous cell carcinoma cells, and for neonatal melanocytes, fibroblasts, and keratinocytes. About 18% of all metastatic tumor cells placed in contact with sea urchin embryo basement membranes and their associated extracellular matrix invaded them. About 4% of the cells of a primary squamous cell carcinoma, which later metastasized, invaded these substrates. As expected, neonatal melanocytes, keratinocytes, and fibroblasts failed to invade; however, melanocytes treated with scatter factor (hepatocyte growth factor) invaded as efficiently as metastatic tumor cells. This suggests that the lack of invasion by epidermal melanocytes is not due to irreversible differentiation to a noninvasive phenotype. Invasion time courses showed that the metastatic cells tested reached their maximal invasion frequencies in 4 h; thus, invasion of these substrates is rapid and efficient. This suggests that molecules participating in basement membrane recognition and invasion have been functionally conserved during the time separating vertebrates from invertebrates and that their constitutive activity may allow metastatic cells to escape their tissues of origin.
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PMID:Invasion of selectively permeable sea urchin embryo basement membranes by metastatic tumor cells, but not by their normal counterparts. 758 56

When quiescent dog thyroid epithelial cells in primary culture are stimulated for 48 h with thyrotropin (TSH), forskolin acting through cAMP, or with cAMP-independent mitogens including epidermal growth factor (EGF), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and a tumor promoting phorbol ester (TPA), only 30-60% of cells progress through the cell cycle. A more general growth response requires the combination of EGF and TSH or forskolin. In this study we ask whether this intercellular heterogeneity in mitogen sensitivity could depend on a similar heterogeneity at early stages of the mitogenic stimulation process, i.e., at the levels of p42/p44 MAP kinase nuclear translocation and c-Fos protein appearance. We used indirect immunofluorescence microscopy with photometric quantitation and corroborated data using Western blotting. We analyzed the double staining of c-Fos and p42/p44 MAP kinases, since the nuclear translocation of these MAP kinases has been suggested as a key step for the stimulation of c-fos transcription. (i) EGF and HGF induced c-Fos accumulation and MAP kinase translocation in variable fractions of the cell population that corresponded to their relative potency as mitogens. c-Fos appearance and MAP kinase translocation poorly correlated in individual cells. Many cells accumulated c-Fos without any detectable p42/p44 MAP kinase translocation. The heterogeneity of proliferative responses to EGF could be due to the lack of c-Fos or MAP kinase responsiveness of many cells. (ii) TPA induced c-Fos accumulation and MAP kinase translocation within the whole cell population, which did not explain the heterogeneity of the growth response to this factor and showed that these events are not sufficient to elicit DNA synthesis, (iii) TSH and forskolin induced a weak c-Fos accumulation in only a minority of cells but, as previously shown, no p42/p44 MAP kinase phosphorylation and translocation. An important c-Fos expression was thus dispensable for the strong DNA synthesis stimulation exerted by cAMP-dependent mitogens. (iv) Forskolin potentiated the EGF effect on c-Fos expression but not on p42/p44 MAP kinase phosphorylation and translocation. This reflected the fact that EGF induced c-Fos accumulation in 90% of cells in the presence of forskolin but in 30-50% of cells in its absence. This kind of potentiation, which specifically implies an increase in the fraction of responding cells, is termed "generalization" in the present study.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:Intercellular heterogeneity of early mitogenic events: cAMP generalizes the EGF effect on c-Fos protein appearance but not on MAP kinase phosphorylation and nuclear translocation in dog thyroid epithelial cells. 758 41

Aberrant proliferation of tumor cells characterizes cancer growth. Investigations of cellular growth control mechanisms have contributed to our understanding of carcinogenesis and to the identification of compounds with specific antitumor activity. Many cytokines have been found to act on melanoma tumors, either produced by the tumor cells themselves or by infiltrating host cells. Purified cytokines allowed direct comparison of the growth response between normal human melanocytes and malignant melanoma cells. The present paper summarizes results of a series of our own experiments not yet published and data from a review of the recent literature. Proliferation of normal human melanocytes is enhanced by several cytokines, including basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), melanoma growth stimulatory activity (MGSA), hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and mast cell growth factor (MGF). Melanoma cells are additionally stimulated by epidermal growth factor (EGF)/transforming growth factor alpha (TGF-alpha) and nerve growth factor (NGF). Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha), transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGF-beta 1), and interleukin (IL)-6 are all potent inhibitors of melanocyte growth, but they are less effective on melanoma cells or even stimulate their growth. Interferon (IFN)-alpha and IFN-gamma inhibited proliferation of melanoma cells but not of melanocytes, whereas IFN-beta showed antiproliferative effects in both cell types. These findings suggest an alteration in growth control mechanisms during melanocyte transformation and possibly play a role in melanoma pathogenesis.
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PMID:Growth control of melanoma cells and melanocytes by cytokines. 759 88

Tumour cell motility and attachment are crucial requirements in the formation of metastatic lesions. These properties are affected by a number of cytokines including hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF) and several immunoregulatory proteins, including interleukin-12 (IL-12). Although IL-12 has been reported to exhibit potent anti-tumour effects in vivo, a direct effect of IL-12 on cancer cells has not been reported. We show here that IL-12 directly inhibited the attachment of the human colon cancer cell lines HRT18, HT29 and HT115 to Matrigel, HGF/SF-stimulated cell motility and HGF/SF-induced cell invasion through a reconstituted basement membrane. IL-12 did not affect the growth of these cell lines. Flow cytometry, Western analysis and immunohistochemistry revealed an up-regulation of E-cadherin cell-surface adhesion molecules. These direct effects of IL-12 on colon cancer cells suggest a potentially important role for IL-12 in metastasis.
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PMID:Inhibition of cancer cell motility and invasion by interleukin-12. 764 24

Overexpression of both transforming growth factor (TGF)-alpha and c-myc is consistently reported in hepatic tumors. We transfected rat liver epithelial cells (RLECs) with expression vectors for TGF-alpha, c-myc, or both and analyzed the morphology, biological properties, and tumorigenicity of clones that overexpressed these genes. The transfectants were morphologically indistinguishable from the parental RLECs, but the overexpression of TGF-alpha resulted in changes in growth properties and an enhanced response to the mitogenic effects of hepatocyte growth factor. The concomitant overexpression of c-myc decreased growth factor requirements of the TGF-alpha lc-myc clones compared with RLEC and TGF-alpha clones. The TGF-alpha and TGF-alpha lc-myc clones were tumorigenic in nude mice at frequencies of 27% and 53%, respectively, indicating that the genes cooperate in malignant transformation. However, the untransformed nature and low tumorigenicity of the transfectants suggest that transformation depends on other cellular events in addition to the overexpression of TGF-alpha or c-myc. Characterization of tumor cell lines showed that in contrast to the transfectants, the tumor clones were morphologically transformed, capable of autonomous growth and anchorage-independent growth, and aggressively tumorigenic with a frequency of 100%. Clearly, the tumor cells differed from the transfectants and had undergone biological or genetic alterations (or both) as a consequence of the overexpression of TGF-alpha or c-myc. Our data suggest that the overexpression of TGF-alpha leads to enhanced responsiveness to hepatocyte growth factor, whereas the concomitant overexpression of c-myc confers growth-factor independence, providing a potential explanation of the mechanisms by which the overexpression of these genes results in transformation.
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PMID:Investigation of the cooperative effects of transforming growth factor alpha and c-myc overexpression in rat liver epithelial cells. 764 62

Gastric cancer involves changes in multiple oncogenes and multiple suppressor genes, and it causes genetic instability. Aberrant expression and amplification of the c-met gene, inactivation of the p53 gene, and CD44 abnormal transcripts are common events of both well differentiated and poorly differentiated gastric cancers. Amplification of the cyclin E gene is also observed in gastric cancer regardless of histologic type. Decreased expression of the pic1 (p21) gene occurs independent of the p53 mutations. In addition, K-ras mutations, c-erbB-2 gene amplification, loss of heterozygosity (LOH) and mutations of the APC gene, LOH of the bcl-2 gene, and LOH at the DCC locus are preferentially associated with well differentiated gastric cancer. Moreover, LOH on chromosome 1q is involved in the progression of well differentiated cancer. Precancerous lesions, including hyperplastic polyp, intestinal metaplasia, and adenoma, share genetic changes found in well differentiated cancers. Conversely, genetic instability may be involved in the first step of stomach carcinogenesis of the poorly differentiated type. Reduction or loss of cadherin and catenins, K-sam gene amplification, and c-met gene amplification are necessary for the development and progression of poorly differentiated or scirrhous carcinoma. Interaction between cell-adhesion molecules in the c-met expressed tumor cells and hepatocyte growth factor from stromal cells is implicated in the morphogenesis of two types of gastric cancer.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Molecular biology of gastric cancer. 767 88

Scatter factor (SF) is a glycoprotein which is secreted by mesenchymal cells and which causes cohesive epithelial cell colonies to spread out, separate into individual cells, and assume a fibroblastic morphology (i.e., to "scatter"). SF is now known to be identical or nearly identical to hepatocyte growth factor, a serum-derived mitogen for various normal cell types. SF, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFa), and interleukin-1 (IL1) share the ability to stimulate scattering, motility, and protease production in a variety of human tumor cell types. SF and TNFa stimulate vascular endothelial cell motility in vitro and induce angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, in vivo. These factors may participate in a cytokine network which regulates tumor invasion and metastasis directly by enhancing the malignant epithelial phenotype and indirectly by inducing tumor neovascularization.
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PMID:The interaction of HGF-SF with other cytokines in tumor invasion and angiogenesis. 767 33

Human hepatocyte growth factor (hHGF) was first purified from plasma of patients with fulminant hepatic failure (Gohda, E., Tsubouchi, H., Nakayama, H., Hirono, S., Sakiyama, O., Takahashi, K., Miyazaki, H., Hashimoto, S., and Daikuhara, Y. (1988) J. Clin. Invest. 81, 414-419) and is now identified to be the same protein as the scatter factor (Weidner, K. M., Arakaki, N., Hartmann, G., Vandekerckhove, J., Weingart, S., Rieder, H., Fonatsch, C., Tsubouchi, H., Hishida, T., Daikuhara, Y., and Birchmeier, W. (1991) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 88, 7001-7005) and tumor cytotoxic factor (Shima, N., Nakao, M., Ogaki, F., Tsuda, E., Murakami, A., and Higashio, K. (1991) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 180, 1151-1158), and it is known to be produced by fibroblasts in culture. Here we report that inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) stimulate production of hHGF from human embryonic lung fibroblasts, MRC-5, and human gingival fibroblasts, GF-5. Recombinant human IL-1 alpha (rhIL-1 alpha) and recombinant human TNF-alpha (rhTNF-alpha) increased hHGF levels in culture supernatants of MRC-5 and GF-5 cells dose-dependently as determined by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for hHGF. The half-maximal stimulatory concentrations of rhIL-1 alpha and rhTNF-alpha were about 1ng/ml and 10 units/ml, respectively. rhIL-1 beta showed almost the same effect as IL-1 alpha on stimulation of production of immunoreactive hHGF from the two cell lines. However, rhIL-6 failed to show the stimulatory effect on hHGF production by the cells in the range of 2-200 units/ml. Human interferon-beta and -gamma also did not show the stimulatory activity. Stimulation of hHGF production was observed 6-12 h after addition of rhIL-1 alpha or rhTNF-alpha and lasted at least 48 h, and the observed stimulation of hHGF production by cytokines was suppressed by addition of corresponding antiserum. hHGF mRNA levels of MRC-5 cells increased by addition of rhIL-1 alpha and rhTNF-alpha in a dose-dependent manner as determined by Northern blot analysis using cDNA for hHGF as a probe. In addition, results from nuclear run-off transcription experiments showed that the two cytokines regulated increasing hHGF gene expression at transcriptional levels rather than a change in mRNA stability. These observations indicate that the inflammatory cytokines modulate the production and secretion of hHGF by fibroblasts and may play an important role for tissue repair and regeneration.
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PMID:Enhancement of human hepatocyte growth factor production by interleukin-1 alpha and -1 beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha by fibroblasts in culture. 768 34

The met protooncogene tyrosine kinase receptor (Met) and its ligand, hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF), ordinarily constitute a paracrine signaling system in which cells of mesenchymal origin produce the ligand, which binds to the receptor that is predominantly expressed in cells of epithelial origin. However, mouse NIH/3T3 fibroblasts overexpressing Met induce tumor formation in nude mice via an autocrine mechanism (S. Rong et al., Mol. Cell. Biol., 12: 5152-5158, 1992). In this study, we report that human cell lines established from various sarcomas express high levels of activated Met receptor. HGF/SF is also detected in the human sarcoma cell lines but at a reduced level when compared to primary fibroblasts. These properties, high Met expression and reduced ligand levels, are indistinguishable from the properties of NIH/3T3 tumor explant cells overexpressing Met (S. Rong et al., Mol. Cell. Biol., 12: 5152-5158, 1992; S. Rong et al., Cell Growth & Differ., 4: 563-569, 1993). Moreover, paraffin-embedded sections of primary tumors from human osteosarcomas, chondrosarcomas, and leiomyosarcoma stain intensely for Met and/or HGF/SF and display extensive tumor cell heterogeneity with regard to both paracrine and autocrine stimulation. On the basis of these findings, we propose that Met-HGF/SF autocrine signaling may contribute to the tumorigenic process in human sarcomas.
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PMID:Met expression and sarcoma tumorigenicity. 769 39

Hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor (HGF/SF), a fibroblast-derived mediator of epithelial and endothelial growth and motility, is regulated by factors present in media conditioned by breast tumor cell lines. Both inhibitory and stimulatory effects were observed dependent on culture conditions. The present work shows that breast tumor cell conditioned medium contains a latent HGF/SF inhibitory activity, which can be activated by a variety of treatments known to activate latent transforming growth factor-beta. Using blocking antibodies and other criteria, we show that transforming growth factor-beta present in epithelial cell conditioned medium is primarily responsible for mediating the down-regulation of fibroblast HGF/SF. Epithelial cell conditioned medium also contains a trypsin-sensitive and heat-stable stimulatory activity. Stromal cell density but not proliferation rate markedly alters HGF/SF expression. These results indicate that the expression of at least one epithelial morphogen, HGF/SF, is interdependently regulated by mesenchymal condensation and by factors released by neighboring epithelial and carcinoma cells.
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PMID:Tumor-stroma interactions and stromal cell density regulate hepatocyte growth factor protein levels: a role for transforming growth factor-beta activation. 772 Jun 42


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