Together, our results show for the first time that in vivo silencing of Tβ4 expression by its shRNA generated after adenoviral infection can suppress CRC growth.
In this study, we show that Tβ4 was significantly overexpressed in colorectal cancer tissues compared to adjacent normal tissues and high levels of Tβ4 were correlated with stage of colorectal cancer, and that Tβ4 expression was associated with morphogenesis and EMT.
This study was aimed at evaluating the correlation between Tβ(4) immunoractivity and colorectal cancer, with particular attemption to tumor cells undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition.
These results suggest that the expression of thymosin β4 is highly related with tumorigenesis of certain tumors including the osteosarcoma and colorectal cancers.
In this review, we summarize the staging system, the most critical genetic and epigenetic alterations, the pleiotropic effects of MMP-7, the controversial roles of Hedgehog signaling, the intriguing involvement of thymosin beta-4, and the possible contribution of the putative colon (cancer) stem cells in CRC tumorigenesis.
These results suggest that upregulation of Tbeta-4, by promoting the disruption of cell-cell adhesion and a consequential activation of the beta-catenin signaling, could be a key event in the acquisition of growth advantages as well as invasive phenotypes in human colorectal carcinomas.