title: Fascin promotes the motility and invasiveness of pancreatic cancer cells.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore the role of actin-bundling protein, fascin during the progression of pancreatic cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  The plasmid expressing human fascin-1 was stably transfected into the pancreatic cancer cell line MIA PaCa-2. The proliferation, cell cycle, motility, scattering, invasiveness and organization of the actin filament system in fascin-transfected MIA PaCa-2 cells and control non-transfected cells were determined.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Heterogeneous overexpression of fascin markedly enhanced the motility, scattering, and invasiveness of MIA PaCa-2 cells. However, overexpression of fascin had minimal effect on MIA PaCa-2 cell proliferation and cell cycle. In addition, cell morphology and organization of the actin filament system were distinctly altered in fascin overexpressed cells. When transplanted into BALB/c-nu mice, fascin-transfected pancreatic cancer cells developed solid tumors at a slightly slower rate, but these tumors displayed more aggressive behavior in comparison with control tumors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Fascin promotes pancreatic cancer cell migration, invasion and scattering, thus contributes to the aggressive behavior of pancreatic cancer cells.
authors: Department of Pathology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100730, China.
authors: Yan-Feng
authors: YF
authors: Xu
authors: Shuang-Ni
authors: SN
authors: Yu
authors: Zhao-Hui
authors: ZH
authors: Lu
authors: Jian-Ping
authors: JP
authors: Liu
authors: Jie
authors: J
authors: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002465:Cell Movement; D003599:Cytoskeleton / Q000378:metabolism; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D008840:Microfilament Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D008840:Microfilament Proteins; C020324:fascin