Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Feb 11.
Published in final edited form as: Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci. 2009;46(4):190. doi: 10.1080/10408360902982128

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Signaling of differentiation by 1,25D in hormone-dependent cancer cells. This schematic illustrates the hypothesis that in normal breast or prostate cells, estrogen (E2) or androgen (A) is sufficient to induce differentiation, respectively. In cancer cells the differentiation signal provided by the hormone-liganded nuclear receptor (NR) may need to be amplified by the cooperation with 1,25D-activated VDR to induce differentiation. Since cells also receive signals from growth factors (GF), several of which activate Ras, the presence of a Ras-activated signaling pathways is exemplified by the AKT and ERK cascades, though the role of these pathways in the differentiation of hormone-dependent cells is uncertain.