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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Dec 15.
Published in final edited form as: Biochim Biophys Acta. 2006 Jul 14;1773(5):642–652. doi: 10.1016/j.bbamcr.2006.07.001

Table 1.

Functions of WASP family proteins, Arp2/3 complex, cofilin, LIM kinase, and cortactin in cancer cell migration, invasion, and metastasis

Protein Overexpression in
metastatic/invasive cancer (evidence)		 Protrusions
involved		 Cancer cell motility and
invasion in vitro		 Tumor metastasis
in vivo
N-WASP Colorectal (MA) [30] IP formation
FP formation		 KD blocks invadopodium formation and
invasion by carcinoma cells [25]		 DN blocks lung metastasis of
breast cancer*1
WAVE1 Melanoma (IB) [32] LP formation KD has little effect on melanoma cell
invasion [32]		 KD has little effect on lung
metastasis of melanoma cells [32]
WAVE2 Melanoma (IB) [32]
Lung (IH) [33]		 LP formation KD blocks melanoma cell invasion [32] KD blocks lung metastasis of
melanoma cells [32]
WAVE3a Breast (MA) [6] LP formation KD blocks carcinoma cell migration and
invasion [56,57]		 ND
Arp2/3 Breast (MA) [6] LP formation KD or DN blocks carcinoma cell ND
 complexa Colorectal (IH) [31]
Lung (IH) [33]		 IP formation invasiveness [25]
LIM Breast (MA) [6] LP formation OE suppresses and DN increases OE decreases and DN increases
 kinasea Breast (IB) [116]
Prostate (IB) [116, 117]		 motility of neuroblastoma [118] and
breast cancer cells [74,119]
OE increases and DN decreases motility
and invasion of breast cancer cells [116]
Reduced expression by antisense abolishes
invasion of prostate cancer cells [117]		 intravasation and metastasis of
breast cancer [119]
OE enhances and DN blocks bone
metastasis of breast cancer [116]
Cofilina Breast (MA) [6]
Glioblastoma (SG) [77]		 LP formation
IP dynamics		 Local activation induces lamellipodia formation
and sets direction of cell motility [72]
KD reduces invasion of carcinoma cells [25]
Moderate OE enhances migration of
glioblastoma cells [76]
Extreme OE inhibits invasion of lung cancer cells
[79]		 ND
Cortactin Colorectal (IB, IH) [120]
Breast (DS) [121]
Head and neck (DP) [92]
Liver (MA, IH) [93]
Melanoma (IB) [122]		 LP dynamics
IP formation		 OE promotes invasion of breast and liver
cancer cells [93,94]
OE enhances and KD inhibits migration and
invasion of fibrosarcoma cells [98]
KD*2, [102] or antibody injection [101]
blocks invasion of breast cancer cells		 OE enhances bone metastasis of
breast cancer [94] and intrahepatic
metastasis of liver cancer [93]

Abbreviations: MA, cDNA or oligonucleotide microarray; IB, immunoblotting; IH, immunohistochemistry; DP, differential PCR; DS, DNA slot-blot; SG, serial analysis of gene expression; LP, lamellipodia; IP, invadopodia, FP, filopodia; OE, overexpression; KD, knockdown by RNAi; DN, dominant-negative overexpression; ND, not determined.

*1

H. Yamaguchi and J. Wyckoff

*2

H. Yamaguchi, unpublished observations.

a

Components of the invasion signature of mammary carcinoma cells [6].