| First Author | Kwa MQ | Year | 2021 |
| Journal | Cells | Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 4 | PubMed ID | 33921698 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:314111 | Mgi Id | MGI:6811040 |
| Doi | 10.3390/cells10040942 | Citation | Kwa MQ, et al. (2021) MRCKalpha Is Dispensable for Breast Cancer Development in the MMTV-PyMT Model. Cells 10(4) |
| abstractText | MRCKalpha is a ubiquitously expressed serine/threonine kinase involved in cell contraction and F-actin turnover, which is highly amplified in human breast cancer and part of a gene expression signature for bad prognosis. Nothing is known about the in vivo function of MRCKalpha. To explore MRCKalpha function in development and in breast cancer, we generated mice lacking a functional MRCKalpha gene. Mice were born close to the Mendelian ratio and showed no obvious phenotype including a normal mammary gland formation. Assessing breast cancer development using the transgenic MMTV-PyMT mouse model, loss of MRCKalpha did not affect tumor onset, tumor growth and metastasis formation. Deleting MRCKalpha and its related family member MRCKbeta in two triple-negative breast cancer cell lines resulted in reduced invasion of MDA-MB-231 cells, but did not affect migration of 4T1 cells. Further genomic analysis of human breast cancers revealed that MRCKalpha is frequently co-amplified with the oncogenes ARID4B and AKT3 which might contribute to the prognostic value of MRCKalpha expression. Collectively, these data suggest that MRCKalpha might be a prognostic marker for breast cancer, but probably of limited functional importance. |
