β-catenin Signaling Controls Metastasis in Braf-activated Pten-deficient Melanomas

Overview

Journal Cancer Cell

Publisher Cell Press

Specialty Oncology

Date 2011 Dec 17

PMID 22172720

Citations 195

Authors

William E Damsky

David P Curley

Manjula Santhanakrishnan

Lara E Rosenbaum

James T Platt

Bonnie E Gould Rothberg

Makoto M Taketo

David Dankort

David L Rimm

Martin McMahon

Marcus Bosenberg

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Malignant melanoma is characterized by frequent metastasis, however, specific changes that regulate this process have not been clearly delineated. Although it is well known that Wnt signaling is frequently dysregulated in melanoma, the functional implications of this observation are unclear. By modulating β-catenin levels in a mouse model of melanoma that is based on melanocyte-specific Pten loss and Braf(V600E) mutation, we demonstrate that β-catenin is a central mediator of melanoma metastasis to the lymph nodes and lungs. In addition to altering metastasis, β-catenin levels control tumor differentiation and regulate both MAPK/Erk and PI3K/Akt signaling. Highly metastatic tumors with β-catenin stabilization are very similar to a subset of human melanomas. Together these findings establish Wnt signaling as a metastasis regulator in melanoma.

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