Likely Culprit in Spread of Colon Cancer Identified (IMAGE)

WashU Medicine

Likely Culprit in Spread of Colon Cancer Identified

Caption

New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville has implicated a poorly understood protein called PLAC8 in the spread of colon cancer. Growing in three dimensional culture, colon cancer cells formed either smooth hollow structures (top) or spiky clumps (bottom). PLAC8 was highly expressed in the spiky clumps, which were shown to form rapidly spreading tumors in mice.

Credit

Cunxi Li, M.D., Ph.D.

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