Pleiotrophin as a Growth Factor and Therapeutic Target in Breast Cancer.
Abstract
In the past year two major findings with respect to the role and regulation of the growth factor pleiotrophin (PTN) were contributed by my laboratory: (1) We discovered that in the human PTN gene a tissue-specific promoter was generated by the germ line insertion of an endogenous retrovirus some 15 to 25 million years ago. This is the first report of a retroviral insertion contributing a tissue-specific promoter in a human gene and only the second human gene that was reported to be altered in its expression pattern by retroviral elements. (2) We demonstrated that the expression of PTN can be rate-limiting for tumor growth, invasion, angiogenesis and metastasis. This was demonstrated by PTN depletion through ribozyme expression in defined human tumor models. In addition to these two major findings, we observed that the newly discovered promoter responds to steroid hormones.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1996
- Accession Number
- ADA325848
Entities
People
- Anton Wellstein
Organizations
- Georgetown University