The relationships between the decreased methylation levels of the SNAI2 and ADAM23 genes and cancer de-differentiation and haematogenous dissemination, respectively, indicate novel functions of those genes in the invasive processes.
Our data provide evidence that ADAM23 plays a role in suppression of cancer cell progression through interaction with αvβ3 integrin, and suggest that downregulation of ADAM23 in SP cells may contribute toward providing a cancer stem cell phenotype by facilitating the activity of integrin αvβ3.
Immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR together with Western blotting methods were used to analyse the expression of ADAM23 in 52 cancer tissue samples and eight benign pulmonary lesions as well as four cell lines.