TY - JOUR AU - Elzarrad, M. Khair AU - Haroon, Abu AU - Willecke, Klaus AU - Dobrowolski, Radoslaw AU - Gillespie, Mark N. AU - Al-Mehdi, Abu-Bakr PY - 2008 DA - 2008/07/22 TI - Connexin-43 upregulation in micrometastases and tumor vasculature and its role in tumor cell attachment to pulmonary endothelium JO - BMC Medicine SP - 20 VL - 6 IS - 1 AB - The modulation of gap junctional communication between tumor cells and between tumor and vascular endothelial cells during tumorigenesis and metastasis is complex. The notion of a role for loss of gap junctional intercellular communication in tumorigenesis and metastasis has been controversial. While some of the stages of tumorigenesis and metastasis, such as uncontrolled cell division and cellular detachment, would necessitate the loss of intercellular junctions, other stages, such as intravasation, endothelial attachment, and vascularization, likely require increased cell-cell contact. We hypothesized that, in this multi-stage scheme, connexin-43 is centrally involved as a cell adhesion molecule mediating metastatic tumor attachment to the pulmonary endothelium. SN - 1741-7015 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-6-20 DO - 10.1186/1741-7015-6-20 ID - Elzarrad2008 ER -