ATF2 may therefore play an important role in the oncogenesis of many mesenchymal tumors, but as yet, little is known about its protein expression in patient specimens.
This Perspective summarizes our current understanding of the changes in members of the AP1 complex and the role of ATF2 as part of this complex in tumorigenesis.
We examine the role of ATF-2 in carcinogenesis with respect to other bZIP proteins, using data from studies in human cancer cell lines, human tumours and mouse models, and we propose a potential model for its function in carcinogenesis, as well as a theoretical basis for its utility in anticancer drug design.
To assess the role of the ATF-2 gene as a tumor suppressor in human carcinogenesis, we examined genetic alterations of the ATF-2 gene in 9 breast cancer cell lines, 10 neuroblastoma cell lines and 46 lung cancer cell lines.