| | Category | ME | L19 | GCNT2 Gene Expression Influences Breast Cancer Metastasis and |
| | Promotes an EMT |
| | Abstract | Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer affecting women |
| | today, and its metastasis has become the hallmark of breast cancer |
| | mortality. There is increasing evidence which identifies metastasis as a |
| | multifaceted process with many steps regulated by numerous genes. |
| | Recent studies have identified genes which concurrently enhance cancer |
| | metastasis and promote an epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), a |
| | cellular program normally occurring only during embryogenesis in which |
| | epithelial cells morph into a mesenchymal phenotype. This study focuses |
| | on the glucosaminyl (n-acetyl) transferase 2 (GCNT2) gene. It was |
| | isolated through gene expression array analysis and its expression was |
| | found to correlate with breast cancer cell metastatic ability. Furthermore, |
| | ectopic expression of GCNT2 in Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) and |
| | Immortalized Human Mammary Epithelial (HMLE) cells found it to be |
| | localized in the cell cytoplasm, but showed no difference in cell |
| | proliferation or colony formation. GCNT2 did, however, cause a profound |
| | increase in cell migration in vitro and promoted an EMT. Interestingly, |
| | GCNT2 selectively suppressed epithelial markers rather than affecting both |
| | epithelial and mesenchymal markers. Also, GCNT2 suppression in 4T1 |
| | breast cancer cells showed marked morphology changes and significantly |
| | down-regulated cell migration and invasion. These findings collectively |
| | suggest that GCNT2 is a novel gene that is probably involved in breast |
| | cancer metastasis, setting the ground for further studies of this gene |
| | which may lead to effective strategies and novel therapies against breast |
| | cancer metastasis. |
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