Regulator of Cell Migration Identified

Researchers have discovered a prime regulator of the mechanism by which human cells migrate, a process involved in sustaining life. The finding was reported in the July 10, 2003, issue of Nature.

For the first time, investigators found that an enzyme known as JNK, involved in many cell regulatory pathways, also controls a central step in the biochemical process. They also found that paxillin, a focal adhesion protein, is a target for JNK, and that phosphorylation plays an important signaling role in cell migration.

"For cells to be able to move, they must have adhesions that can break down from time to time,” explained co-author Ken Jacobson, professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC, USA; www.unc.edu). "If they were permanent, in other words too sticky, the cell would be stuck. The new work shows this phosphorylation event is important in signaling the cell to disassemble some of its adhesions so that it can move.”

The experiments were conducted on fish scale cells and rat bladder tumor cells. The researchers identified a specific biopathway by which signals from outside cells, provided by hormones and growth factors, can regulate cell locomotion. The finding that paxillin is a target for JNK indicates that JNK also plays an important role in cytoplasm, expanding their understanding of JNK, the researchers said.




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