人波形蛋白中间丝的结构和功能及其与肿瘤的关系

波形蛋白是一种重要的Ⅲ型中间丝蛋白,主要表达于胚胎组织和由间叶组织来源的成体细胞,研究表明波形蛋白在胚胎发育和细胞分化、细胞的黏附和移动、细胞凋亡、炎症和免疫反应中发挥重要的生物学功能。然而,到目前为止,波形蛋白的确切功能仍然存在争议,主要是因为波形蛋白基因剔除小鼠没有出现异常的生物学表型。癌细胞表达波形蛋白与其生长、侵袭和肿瘤发生密切相关,波形蛋白与恶性肿瘤相互关系的研究已成为肿瘤分子生物学和肿瘤演进的一个重要领域。

Human Vimentin Intermediate Filament:Structure,Function and Its Association with Tumor

Vimentin is a class III intermediate filament protein predominantly expressed in developing embryo and in cells of mesenchymal origin in the adult, is shown to play an important role in vital mechanical and biological functions such as embryo development and differentiation, cell attachment and migration, apoptosis,inflammation and immunological reaction. Still, until recently, the real tasks of virnentin have been controversial, primarily because the vimentin knockout mice were originally characterized as having a very mild phenotype. Vimentin is expressed frequently in epithelial carcinomas associated with tumor growth, invasiveness and tumorigenesis. The researeh about correlation between vimentin and cancer is an important field in biology and evolution of tumor.