NG2/CSPG4-collagen type VI interplays putatively involved in the microenvironmental control of tumour engraftment and local expansion.

ABSTRACT: In soft-tissue sarcoma patients, enhanced expression of NG2/CSPG4 proteoglycan in pre-surgical primary tumours predicts post-surgical metastasis formation and thereby stratifies patients into disease-free survivors and patients destined to succumb to the disease. Both primary and secondary sarcoma lesions also up-regulate collagen type VI, a putative extracellular matrix ligand of NG2, and this matrix alteration potentiates the prognostic impact of NG2. Enhanced constitutive levels of the proteoglycan in isolated sarcoma cells closely correlate with a superior engraftment capability and local growth in xenogenic settings. This apparent NG2-associated malignancy was also corroborated by the diverse tumorigenic behaviour in vitro and in vivo of immunoselected NG2-expressing and NG2-deficient

SUBMITTER: Cattaruzza S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3656611 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature