Laminin 111
Injections of this substance are used in treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and its cellular action may potentially become a focus of study in cancer research.
[3] From studying a mouse model, it was found that transcription factors present in the parietal endoderm regulate the expression of the α1 and large amounts of laminin-111 are produced.
[5] When the laminin α1 chain is deficient in an organism, an embryo dies, likely as a result of a defective Reichert’s membrane due to a lack of laminin–111 being produced.
[5] The injection of laminin-111, however, helps with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a neuromuscular disease in which the connection between the extracellular matrix and cell cytoskeleton is lost.
[6] The experiments utilizing laminin–111 as a source of therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy suggest that it has protective qualities in addition to its association with muscle tissue.
[8] Globular domains (G-Domain) of the α chain are the regions on laminin-111 that allow the binding of integrins, glycoproteins, sulfated glycolipids and dystroglycan.
[8] For example, the PI3K/AKT pathway is used by laminin-111 (promotes cell-survival), 511 (prevents apoptosis with laminin 521), and 521 (stabilizes pluripotency of human embryonic stem cells).
[11] Nonetheless, Nitric Oxide synthesis is shown to be an important element in laminin-mediated neurite outgrowth.
[13] Focussing on connections between laminin-111 and other proteins involved in cell-to-cell communication could spark further research that may help to further our current understanding of cancer and how to slow down or stop its process.
Their study gave the following conclusions: The biological process in which a cell ceases to continue growing and dividing is called quiescence (the opposite of cancer).
Decreased expression of laminin-111 and the growth-inhibitory signals that it produces in malignant myoepithelial cells begs for further investigation with regard to cancer research.
