Does cigarette smoke induce endoplasmic reticulum stress and the unfolded protein response in normal and malignant human lung cells?
These data indicate that chronic ER stress and recruitment of one or more UPR effector arms upon exposure to CS may play a pivotal role in the etiology or progression of lung cancers, and that phospho-eIF2 alpha and BiP may have diagnostic and/or therapeutic potential. Furthermore, we speculate that upregulation of UPR regulators (in particular BiP) may provide a pro-survival advantage by increasing resistance to cytotoxic stresses such as hypoxia and chemotherapeutic drugs, and that UPR induction is a potential mechanism that could be attenuated or reversed resulting in a more efficacious treatment strategy for lung cancer.
Our results show that in nonmelanoma skin tumours MMP-7 and -9 are present in the tumour cells, and suggest a link between MMP-7 activity and the depletion of cell surface CD44.