Researchers
studying zebrafish embryo skin have decoded cell messages underlying abnormal
colonic cell growth of the kind that could lead to tumors and colon cancer in
people suffering from calcium deficiency.
The
researchers also tested this new mechanism in human colon cancer cells.
Cunming
Duan, professor in the University of Michigan Department of Molecular, Cellular
and Developmental Biology Ultimately, said that the new biological mechanism
unraveled in zebrafish will help scientists understand the pathways that fuel
low calcium-related abnormal colonic cell growth and how to stop that growth.
To
do this, Duan and colleagues used a fluorescent protein to mark a type of
epithelial cell, whose job it is to import calcium into the body.
When
the researchers placed the zebrafish embryos in calcium-depleted water, they
were surprised that it activated a particular growth factor that stimulates
division and growth in these epithelial cells.
The
calcium transporter (TRPV5/6) must be present for this activation, which is an
apparent survival mechanism for animals to import calcium into cells in
low-calcium environments.
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