Abstract
c-Myc oncoprotein is overexpressed in a significant proportion of human epithelial cancers, and experimental overexpression of c-Myc in epithelial cells promotes tumour formation. However, it is not known how c-Myc promotes epithelial cell tumour formation. We report that c-Myc expression in human mammary epithelial cells induces a dramatic change in cell morphology, with some characteristics of an ‘epithelial to mesenchymal transition’. E-cadherin expression is repressed by a post-transcriptional mechanism in cells expressing c-Myc. Furthermore, E-cadherin repression is necessary for c-Myc-induced cell transformation.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Barry Gumbiner for providing an E-cadherin cDNA and Huan Liu for providing antibodies. We also thank Jim DiRenzo and the Cole Lab for useful discussions. This work was supported by Grant CA80320 From the National Cancer Institute to MDC.
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Cowling, V., Cole, M. E-cadherin repression contributes to c-Myc-induced epithelial cell transformation. Oncogene 26, 3582–3586 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1210132
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.onc.1210132
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