Open AccessTenascin: a modulator of cell growth
Author(s) -
END Peter,
PANAYOTOU George,
ENTWISTLE Alan,
WATERFIELD Michael D.,
CHIQUET Matthias
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
european journal of biochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1432-1033
pISSN - 0014-2956
DOI - 10.1111/j.1432-1033.1992.tb17380.x
Subject(s) - tenascin , fibronectin , extracellular matrix , microbiology and biotechnology , tenascin c , growth factor , epidermal growth factor , biology , tyrosine kinase , platelet derived growth factor receptor , cell growth , cell type , extracellular , cell , signal transduction , receptor , biochemistry
The large, multidomain extracellular matrix protein tenascin displays a markedly restricted tissue distribution during embryogenesis and remains present only in a few adult tissues. The protein is re‐expressed, however, during wound healing and in the stroma of malignant tumours. While a variety of studies have dealt with the important role of tenascin in the development of neural and non‐neural tissues, there is growing evidence that tenascin expression may be associated with proliferation of cells lining these tissues. The presence of repeating domains in tenascin similar to those in epidermal growth factor prompted us to investigate the ability of tenascin to modulate the growth of different cell types. Tenascin was actually found to be mitogenic for several cell types. This mitogenic activity, however, appears to be associated with a region in the fibronectin type III domains. The mitogenic mechanism is clearly distinct from pathways used by peptide growth factors such as epidermal growth factor and platelet‐derived growth factor, which activate the intrinsic tyrosine kinase activity of their cell‐surface receptors. However, we show that this large extracellular matrix molecule is efficiently internalised and may be processed by responding cells.