PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - EDWARD KYU-HO HAN
AU  - THOMAS MCGONIGAL
AU  - JIEYI WANG
AU  - VINCENT L. GIRANDA
AU  - YAN LUO
TI  - Functional Analysis of Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK) Reduction by Small Inhibitory RNAs
DP  - 2004 Nov 01
TA  - Anticancer Research
PG  - 3899--3906
VI  - 24
IP  - 6
4099  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/24/6/3899.short
4100  - http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/24/6/3899.full
SO  - Anticancer Res2004 Nov 01; 24
AB  - The focal adhesion kinase (FAK ) is a non-receptor tyrosine kinase that localizes to the points of cell contact with the extracellular matrix, called focal adhesions. Many factors induce tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK including growth factors, neuropeptides and integrin-dependent adhesion to the extracellular matrix. FAK has been implicated in several cellular processes such as invasion, motility, proliferation and apoptosis. In addition, FAK expression was shown to be elevated in a number of different human cancers, suggesting a role in the development of malignancy. We examined the biological functions of FAK using small inhibitory RNAs (siRNA) in cancer cells. Although FAK siRNA reduced the FAK protein levels by ∼70% in several cancer cell lines, there was no clear evidence of apoptosis. However, in clonogenic and soft-agar assays in H1299, a lung cancer cell line, FAK siRNA treatment led to a 43% to 55% decrease in colony formation. Furthermore, FAK siRNA-treated cells displayed a decrease in migration when serum or EGF (epidermal growth factor) were used as chemo-attractants. Our results demonstrated that inhibition of FAK protein leads to alterations in cell growth and migration. Copyright© 2004 International Institute of Anticancer Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved