Anoikis: an emerging hallmark in health and diseases

Abstract

Anoikis is a programmed cell death occurring upon cell detachment from the correct extracellular matrix, thus disrupting integrin ligation. It is a critical mechanism in preventing dysplastic cell growth or attachment to an inappropriate matrix. Anoikis prevents detached epithelial cells from colonizing elsewhere and is thus essential for tissue homeostasis and development. As anchorage-independent growth and epithelial-mesenchymal transition, two features associated with anoikis resistance, are crucial steps during tumour progression and metastatic spreading of cancer cells, anoikis deregulation has now evoked particular attention from the scientific community. The aim of this review is to analyse the molecular mechanisms governing both anoikis and anoikis resistance, focusing on their regulation in physiological processes, as well as in several diseases, including metastatic cancers, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

The stem cell transcription factor ZFP57 induces IGF2 expression to promote anchorage-independent growth in cancer cells

“…It is well-known that AKT activation plays an important role in anchorage-independent growth in cancer cells. 37 We confirmed the expression of the IGF1 receptor and observed that IGF2 stimulation leads to activation of AKT in HT1080 cells. Furthermore, we found that ZFP57 knockdown reduces AKT phosphorylation.…”

“…When cultured in the absence of adhesion to substratum, normal adherent cells undergo apoptosis, a phenomenon known as anoikis. 36,37 By contrast, transformed cells are able to survive and grow even in the absence of anchorage. Anchorage-independent growth is therefore a major characteristic of transformed cells, and in fact shows a good correlation with tumor malignancy.…”

La mort cellulaire programmée ne manque pas de vocabulaire

“…Parmi les cas particuliers d'apoptose, nous pouvons citer l'anoïkis qui ne concerne que les cellules adhé-rentes, car c'est une apoptose induite par le déta-chement cellulaire de la matrice extracellulaire. Elle implique une perte de l'attachement des intégrines β1, la diminution de l'expression de l'EGFR, l'inhibition de la signalisation ERK1 et la surexpression de BIM, un membre de la famille Bcl-2 [9,10]. L'étude moléculaire de l'anoïkis présente un intérêt en raison de la propriété des cellules cancéreuses épithéliales invasives et métastatiques à résister à ce type de mort.…”

High dose of extracellular ATP switched autophagy to apoptosis in anchorage-dependent and anchorage-independent hepatoma cells

“…However, many cancer cells acquire anoikis resistance and maintain survival without adhering strongly to the substratum [7,8]. Our previous work showed that anchorage-deprived hepatoma cells maintained anchorage-independent survival by a synoikis-like survival style, characterized by multicellular aggregation formation, cell cycle arrest, non-proliferation, non-apoptosis, and insensitivity to extracellular stimuli [9].…”