Page 26 - Annual Report 2020

Ningling Kang, Ph.D.
Tumor Microenvironment and Metastasis
SECTION LEADER / ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
“The long-term goal
of our research program is to define mechanisms governing myofibroblastic activation of hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) and develop strategies to target HSCs and the prometastatic liver
microenvironment.”
Ningling Kang
Dandan Liu Xianghu Wang Yuanguo Wang Hua Wang
Tumor-derived factor TGFβ is one of the In the last year, we continued to investigate if
most potent cytokines that induce activa-
tion of HSCs into tumor-promoting myofi- broblasts. So we focus on mechanisms govern- ing intracellular trafficking of TGFβ receptors.
In addition to biochemical signaling pathways for HSC activation, we also study the role of matrix stiffness-induced mechanosignaling in activation of HSCs into tumor-promoting myofibroblasts.
focal adhesion kinase (FAK) modulated the func- tion of TGFβ receptor II. Specifically, we studied if FAK phosphorylated TGFβ receptor 2 (TGFβR2) and regulated TGFβR2 intracellular trafficking
in HSCs. Our data revealed that targeting FAK kinase activity suppressed the TGFβR2 protein level, TGFβ1-induced SMAD phosphorylation, and myofibroblastic activation of HSCs. At the
SUMMARY
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