Integrin α3β1 on Tumor Keratinocytes Is Essential to Maintain Tumor Growth and Promotes a Tumor-Supportive Keratinocyte Secretome.

ABSTRACT: The development of integrin-targeted cancer therapies is hindered by incomplete understanding of integrin function in tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment. Previous studies showed that mice with epidermis-specific deletion of the α3 integrin subunit fail to form skin tumors during two-step chemical tumorigenesis, indicating a protumorigenic role for integrin α3β1. Here, we generated mice with tamoxifen-inducible, epidermis-specific α3 knockout to determine the role of α3β1 in the maintenance of established tumor cells and/or the associated stroma. Genetic ablation of α3 in established skin tumors caused their rapid regression, indicating that α3β1 is essential to maintain tumor growth. Although reduced proliferation and increased apoptosis were observed in α3β1-deficient tumor cells,

SUBMITTER: Longmate WM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7680721 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature