Effect Of CXC Chemokine Receptor4 On Colorectal Cancer Metastasis

BackgroundMetastasis is important character of malignant tumors and the key point to difficultly cure malignant tumors that lead patients to death finally. Not only immunocytes but also tumor cells express chemokine receptors. Muller explained the relationship between chemokine receptors and breast cancer metastasis in 2001 and showed that the expression of chemokine receptors was significantly associated with tumor metastasis. CXC chemokine receptor4 (CXCR4) is one of the most common chemokine receptors in tissues and plays important roles in malignant tumors growth, migration and metastasis. CXCR4 is expressed higher in tumors than in nomal tissues, and organs representing the common sites of tumor metastasis are the most abundant sources of its ligand stromal cell derived factor-1 (SDF-1) . Signalling through CXCR4 mediates actin polymerization and pseudopodia formation in cells, and induces chemotactic activity and migration to target organs. In addition, CXCR4-SDF-1 axis can promote tumor angiogenesis and growth. So CXCR4 has become a new and attractive target for developing anti-tumor drugs.Objective1. To investigate the expression of CXCR4 in colorectal cancer and its significance in lymph node metastasis and liver metastasis.2. To investigate the expression of CXCR4 in three colorectal cancer cell lines and its relationship with cell migration and proliferation.3. To evaluate the inhibitory effect of CXCR4 small interfering RNA (CXCR4 siRNA) on the expression of CXCR4 and migration of the colorectal cancer cell SW480.