We cloned recently an alternatively spliced variant of KAI1 mRNA that lacked exon 7 at the COOH-terminal region and showed differences in metastasis suppression when compared with the wild-type KAI1. These findings indicated that the COOH-terminal region of KAI1 is critical for its metastasis suppressor function. In this study, we isolated a cDNA clone of VANGL1, a member of the tetraspanin pro...

BACKGROUND The most common reason for malignant tumor treatment failure is recurrence and metastasis. Metastasis-associated in colon cancer-1 (MACC1) was originally identified as a metastatic and prognostic biomarker for colon cancer and later other solid tumors. Kangai 1 (KAI1), a marker of suppressor of metastasis, is also associated with metastasis and poor prognosis in many tumors. However,...

KAI1 is a tumor metastasis suppressor gene that is capable of inhibiting the metastatic process in animals. The expression of the KAI1 gene also is found to be down-regulated during the tumor progression of prostate, breast, lung, bladder, and pancreatic cancers in humans, and this down-regulation appears to be at or posttranscription level. We have found that the tumor suppressor gene p53 can ...

BACKGROUND KAI1 and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is related to both angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis and is an important target in new cancer treatment strategies. We aimed to investigate the KAI1 and marker of EMT expression and correlation with lymph node metastasis (LNM) and explore their prognostic impact in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). METHODS Tumor tissue specimens f...

Expression of gp78, an E3 ubiquitin ligase in endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation, is associated with tumor malignancy. To study gp78 overexpression in mammary gland development and tumorigenicity, we generated murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV) long terminal repeat-driven gp78 transgenic mice. Embryos carrying the gp78 transgene cassette were implanted in FVB surrogate mothers, and two...

Down-regulation of the KAI1 (CD82) metastasis suppressor is common in advanced human cancer, but underlying mechanism(s) regulating KAI1 expression are only now being elucidated. Recent data provide evidence that low levels of KAI1 mRNA in LNCaP cells are caused by binding of beta-catenin/Reptin complexes to a specific motif in the proximal promoter, which prevents binding of Tip60/Pontin activ...

Pancreatic carcinoma is a common cancer type with a poor prognosis. The aim of the present study was to examine the expression of tumor suppressor genes phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted in chromosome 10 (PTEN) and KAI1 in pancreatic carcinoma and its association with clinical pathological factors. A total of 50 hospitalized cases of pancreatic cancer including 28 males and 22 females aged...

presentation 1. Watabe, K. (2006) The role of KAI1 and Drg1 in metastases suppression. BenMay symposium. Chicago 2. Watabe, K. (2006) Metastasis suppressor genes, Kai11 and Drg1. Tokyo University, Japan. Invited lecture 3. Watabe, K. (2006) The role of metastases suppressor genes in prostate cancer. Kyoto University, Japan. Invited lecture 4. Watabe K (2007) Functions of metastasis suppressor g...

Primary melanoma, a highly aggressive malignancy, exhibits heterogeneity in biologic behaviors, clinical characteristics, metastasis potential and mortality. The present study sought to identify the molecular signatures that define a subgroup of primary melanomas with high risks of metastasis and mortality. First, we identified the markers that best differentiated metastatic melanomas from prim...