Ectopic expression of c-kit in small-cell lung cancer

✍ Scribed by Toyoaki Hida; Ryuzo Ueda; Yoshitaka Sekido; Kenji Hibi; Ryohei Matsuda; Yutaka Ariyoshi; Takahiko Sugiura; Takashi Takahash; Toshitade Takahashi

• Book ID: 102277226
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 195 KB
• Volume: 57
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910570723

✦ Synopsis

Accumulating evidence suggests that c-kit plays an important role in the regulation of growth of at least 3 lineages of stem cells, while only very limited data are available on the development of human solid tumors. Our recent studies have shown that c-kit transcripts are expressed in a very restricted sub-set of human solid tumors such as small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). We have also conducted an immunohistological study on in situ localization of the c-kit protein in various human solid tumors as well as in corresponding fetal and adult normal tissues. No c-kit expression was detected in normal bronchial epithelial cells or pneurnocytes in lung parenchyma of human fetal and adult specimens, indicating that the c-kit protein is aberrantly expressed in lung-cancer cells. We also found that significant chemotactic response as well as moderate in vitro cell growth occurred in SCLC cell lines upon addition of recombinant human stem-cell factor.