Plakophilin 3 is a protein present in desmosomes of stratified and simple epithelia of normal tissues with presence in malignant cells of various tumors where it participates in the process of tumorigenesis.
Further, the K8 PKP3 double knockdown clones showed a decrease in colony formation in soft agar and decreased tumorigenesis and metastasis in nude mice.
As our data imply that up-regulation of PKP3 is a frequent and important feature of lung carcinogenesis, we suggest that targeting the PKP3 molecule might hold promise for development of a new therapeutic and diagnostic strategy for clinical management of lung cancers.