Control of Prostate Cancer Cell Growth and Survival by the Extracellular Matrix

摘要

The scope of this grant proposal is to investigate whether adhesion of prostate cancer cells to extracellular matrices regulates cell growth and survival. We have shown that attachment of LNCaP cells to a variety of matrices results in the phosphorylation of the focal adhesion kinase, FAK. However the downstream signaling pathway to Crk is not activated. This is due to the lack of Src activation upon cell adhesion. Despite the absence of Src activation, adhesion to the extracellular matrix stimulates cell proliferation, but not cell migration. In summary, we have demonstrated that Src activation is critical for cell migration and for the assembly of the p130Cas/Crk pathway in prostate cancer cells. This information will help in the design of drugs that can inhibit prostate cancer metastasis.