Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are mostly retained in a quiescent non-motile mode in their bone marrow (BM) niches, shifting to a migratory cycling and differentiating state to replenish the blood with mature leukocytes on demand. The balance between the major chemo-attractants CXCL12, predominantly in the BM, and S1P, mainly in the blood, dynamically regulates HSC recruitment to the circulati...

Esophageal cancer is one of the most common malignant tumors of the digestive tract. The greatest obstacle to the curing of esophageal cancer is its propensity to spread and metastasize. Esophageal cancer stem cells are considered the source for recurrence and metastasis of the tumors. While clinical evidence suggested that continuous up-regulation of CXCL12/CXCR4 was significantly associated w...

CXCR4, the primary receptor for CXCL12, plays a critical role in the development of hematopoietic, vascular, central nervous, and immune systems by mediating directional migration of precursor cells. This mechanism promotes homing of tumor cells to metastatic sites that secrete CXCL12, and CXCR4 expression is a negative prognostic factor in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). To elucidate mechani...

Recent evidence suggests that the chemokine axis of CXC chemokine ligand-12 and its receptor CXC chemokine receptor-4 (CXCL12/CXCR4) is highly expressed in gynecological tumors and the axis of CXC chemokine ligand-16 and CXC chemokine receptor-6 (CXCL16/CXCR6) is overexpressed in inflammation-associated tumors. This study aimed to determine the relationship between CXCL12/CXCR4, CXCL16/CXCR6 an...

Chemokine (C-X-C motif) receptor 7 (CXCR7) and its ligand, chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 12 (CXCL12), were established to be involved in biological behaviors and associated with prognosis in many cancers. However, effects, underlying mechanisms of CXCL12-CXCR7 axis in invasive phenotype of pancreatic cancer (PC) and its clinicopathologic significances have not been comprehensively explored. In...

BACKGROUND Chemokines tightly regulate the spatial and temporal infiltration of invading leucocyte subsets during wound healing. Stromal cell-derived factor-1 (SDF-1/CXCL12) is a homeostatic chemokine with multiple functions; its role during cutaneous wound healing, however, needs to be explored. OBJECTIVES To elucidate expression of the multifunctional CXC chemokine SDF-1/CXCL12 during human...

In vivo studies have suggested that gradients of CXCL12 (aka stromal cell-derived factor 1α) may be critical for neural stem cell (NSC) migration during brain development and neural tissue regeneration. However, traditional in vitro chemotaxis tools are limited by unstable concentration gradients and the inability to decouple cell migration directionality and speed. These limitations have restr...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the possible crosstalk between C-X-C chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4)/C-X-C motif chemokine 12 (CXCL12)/C-X-C chemokine receptor 7 (CXCR7) axis with the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). METHODS Sixty-one human NETs were included into the study. CXCR4/CXCL12/CXCR7 axis and mTOR pathway were assessed by qRT-PCR and immunohistochemis...

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is an unsolved health problem with nearly 75% of patients diagnosed with advanced disease and an overall 5-year survival rate near 5%. Despite the strong link between mortality and malignancy, the mechanisms behind pancreatic cancer dissemination and metastasis are poorly understood. Correlative pathological and cell culture analyses suggest the chemokine recept...

JAK2 activation is the driver mechanism in BCR-ABL-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). These diseases are characterized by an abnormal retention of hematopoietic stem cells within the bone marrow microenvironment and their increased trafficking to extramedullary sites. The CXCL12/CXCR4 axis plays a central role in hematopoietic stem cell/ progenitor trafficking and retention in hematop...