Cancer begins with mutations in one cell of the cellular society.A group led by Professor Yasuyuki Fujita of the Institute for Genetic Disease Control, Hokkaido University has recently revealed that many of the newly generated mutant cells are extruded and eliminated from the body as a result of competition with surrounding normal cells. However, little was known about its molecular mechanism.
Further research by Professor Fujita et al. Has revealed a part of the mechanism of this phenomenon that occurs in the very early stage of cancer, which has been a black box until now.Professor Fujita et al. Analyzed the intracellular calcium ion concentration when mutant cells are excluded from the normal cell layer using an independently established cultured cell line and a mouse model.As a result, he found that calcium ions were concentrically propagating like waves from the mutant cells to the surrounding normal cells.
Furthermore, it was found that normal cells that received the propagated calcium wave (calcium wave) promoted "extrusion" of the mutant cells by moving toward the mutant cells.It is also said that the calcium wave associated with the elimination of mutant cells was observed in both the cultured mammalian cell layer and the zebrafish skin cell layer, and this phenomenon is a universal phenomenon conserved during evolution. It has been suggested.
It is expected that these research results will lead to the development of new cancer research fields, which in turn will lead to the development of the world's first "cancer preventive drug".
Paper information:[Current Biology] Calcium Wave Promotes Cell Extrusion
