Palladin is a Positive Regulator of Astrocytoma Cell Migration

Abstract

Astrocytomas are characterized by uncontrolled proliferation and high invasion to adjacent normal regions of the brain. They originate from the normal glial cells, astrocytes. Astrocytomas are also referred to as glioblastoma, a rapidly dividing glioma. The invasion of astrocytomas to nearby sites requires cell migration which has been shown to be highly dependent on the small family of Rho GTPases. Cell motility has been extensively studied and several signaling pathways are involved in the process. In our study, we focused on the newly discovered phosphoprotein Palladin. It has been shown that it is implicated in the cell migration, invasion and adhesion of many other types of cancers as well as playing a role in the activation of Rho GTPases. Adequately, we were interested to unravel the role of palladin on the 2D cell migration of astrocytomas. In addition, we compared and tested the effect of palladin on two important Rho GTPases: Cdc42 and Rac1. The results of our investigation evidenced that palladin is a positive regulator of astrocytoma cell migration.