title: The dermcidin gene in cancer: role in cachexia, carcinogenesis and tumour cell survival.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The diverse protein products of the dermcidin gene are relevant to immunity, cancer cell progression and cancer cachexia. This article evaluates recent developments/controversies around dermcidin.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Dermcidin has recently been shown to act as a survival/proliferation factor in hepatoma and prostate cancer cell lines. Recent studies suggest that the Y-P30 subunit of the dermcidin polypeptide offers a survival advantage in such cancer cells. Nevertheless, the relevance of Y-P30 to cancer growth in vivo, and mechanisms of action remain unknown. In mice, tumour cells appear to glycosylate the Y-P30 subunit, transforming it into a potent skeletal muscle proteolysis-inducing factor. Recent work has described a receptor and signal transduction pathways for murine glycosylated proteolysis-inducing factor. The absence of classical N-glycosylation sites in the human proteolysis-inducing factor peptide and the lack of specific tools for the detection of the key carbohydrate moieties conferring the proteolysis-inducing activity, however, remain barriers to confirming glycosylated proteolysis-inducing factor as a pro-cachectic factor in humans.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a growing body of evidence illustrating dermcidin as an oncogene and Y-P30 as a survival factor. The biology of murine proteolysis-inducing factor as a pro-cachectic factor continues to evolve; however, its role in human biology remains speculative.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Surgical Sciences (Surgery), University of Edinburgh, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, UK. grant.stewart@ed.ac.uk
authors.forename: Grant D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Stewart
authors.forename: Richard Je
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Skipworth
authors.forename: James A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: Kenneth Ch
authors.initials: KCh
authors.lastname: Fearon
authors.forename: Vickie E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Baracos
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002100:Cachexia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D002470:Cell Survival; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006031:Glycosylation; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*; D010455:Peptides / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D011509:Proteoglycans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: D010455:Peptides; D011509:Proteoglycans; C442243:dermcidin; C042057:proteolysis-inducing peptide