Scientists at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine have uncovered a novel pathway by which hormones elevated in inflammation, cancer and cell injury act on cells to stimulate their growth.
The research team led by Joan Heller Brown, Ph.D., professor and chair of the department of pharmacology at UCSD, has demonstrated in a mouse model that a newly discovered subtype of the phospholipase C (PLC) family of enzymes, called PLC-epsilon, has the unique ability to activate a second and distinct signaling pathway that cells require for proliferation. The study is currently on line in advance of publication by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS.)
The studies reported in the PNAS demonstrate that “in the cell, hormones that activate small G proteins are highly dependent on PLC-º to generate second messengers,” said Heller Brown. “In addition, and more surprisingly, we discovered that this enzyme is required for cell growth because it serves a second function when activated by hormones.”