Research
Elevated c-Src and c-Yes expression in malignant skin cancers
1 Department of Plastic and Reconstructive surgery, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, Guri, Korea
2 Department of Plastic and Reconstructive surgery, School of medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, Korea
3 Molecular Cancer Research Center, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Chunan, Korea
4 Department of Dermatology, National Medical Center, Seoul, Korea
5 Department of Dermatology, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Seoul, Korea
Journal of Experimental & Clinical Cancer Research 2010, 29:116 doi:10.1186/1756-9966-29-116
Published: 27 August 2010Abstract
Background
Src family kinases (SFKs) play an important role in cancer proliferation, survival, motility, invasiveness, metastasis, and angiogenesis. Among the SFKs, c-Src and c-Yes are particularly over-expressed or hyper-activated in many human epithelial cancers. However, only a few studies have attempted to define the expression and role of c-Src and c-Yes in cutaneous carcinomas.
Objectives
To investigate the expression of c-Src and c-Yes in cutaneous carcinomas to include malignant melanoma (MM), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and basal cell carcinoma (BCC).
Methods
We examined 6 normal skin tissues and 18 malignant skin tumor tissues using western blotting for the expression of c-Src and c-Yes. In another set, 16 specimens of MM, 16 SCCs and 16 BCCs were analyzed for the expression of c-Src and c-Yes using immunohistochemical staining.
Results
Western blotting showed that c-Src was expressed in all malignant skin tumors, but not in normal skin, while c-Yes was expressed in MM and SCC, but not in BCC and normal skin. Immunohistochemical staining results of c-Src and c-Yes in MM, SCC, and BCC mirrored those of the western blot analysis.
Conclusions
c-Src, rather than c-Yes, plays a key role in the proliferation and progression of malignant skin cancers.
