Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
21
CHAPTER
Bioinformatics Analysis to Identify Cell
Adhesion Molecules in Cancer
Anguraj Sadanandam
1,2
, William J. Gibb
1
and Rakesh K. Singh
3,*
1
Life Sciences Division, Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
Berkeley, CA
3
Department of Pathology and Microbiology, University of Nebraska Medical
Center, Omaha, NE
2
E-mail:
Asadanandam@lbl.gov
ABSTRACT
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in humans. Dysregulation of cell-cell
or cell-extracellular matrix adhesion is the prominent feature of cancer cells during
tumor formation, progression and metastasis. As regulators of tumor cell and
extracellular matrix interactions, cell adhesion molecules (CAMs) play a signii cant
role in these processes. And in the case of organ-specii c metastasis, certain
primary tumor cells display frequent metastasis to specii c organ of preference
through unique interaction between particular CAMs that appear on both the
surface of tumor cells and the vascular endothelium of the preferred organs. Less
is known, however, about the dif erential expression of CAMs between various
tumor types or between vascular endothelium preferred and non-preferred host
tissues of metastasis. h erefore, understanding the molecular diversity of CAMs
associated with cell surfaces of dif erent types of tumors or host tissues becomes
