Receptor tyrosine kinases are important in cell signal transduction and proliferation. Abnormal expression of tyrosine kinases often leads to malignant transformation. C-met is a tyrosine kinase receptor and its ligand is hepatocyte growth factor (HGF). HGF/c-met plays diverse role in regulation of cell growth, shape and movement. Constitutively activated met, such as tpr-met, is a potent oncogene in vitro, but its carcinogenic role in vivo remains unclear. Our study demonstrates that expression of tpr-met leads to development of mammary tumors and other malignancies in transgenic mice, and suggests that deregulated met expression may be involved in mammary carcinogenesis.
T J Liang, A E Reid, R Xavier, R D Cardiff, T C Wang
The Editorial Board will only consider comments that are deemed relevant and of interest to readers. The Journal will not post data that have not been subjected to peer review; or a comment that is essentially a reiteration of another comment.