Volume 11 Issue 1
Physiological Signaling and Structure of the HGF Receptor MET
Gianluca Baldanzi andAndrea Graziani
1Department Translational Medicine, University Piemonte Orientale, via Solaroli 17, 28100 Novara, Italy
2Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, via Olgettina 58, 20132 Milano, Italy
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Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The “hepatocyte growth factor” also known as “scatter factor”, is a multifunctional cytokine with the peculiar ability of simultaneously triggering epithelial cell proliferation, movement and survival. The combination of those proprieties results in the induction of an epithelial to mesenchymal transition in target cells, fundamental for embryogenesis but also exploited by tumor cells during metastatization. The hepatocyte growth factor receptor, MET, is a proto-oncogene and a prototypical transmembrane tyrosine kinase receptor. Inhere we discuss the MET molecular structure and the hepatocyte growth factor driven physiological signaling which coordinates epithelial proliferation, motility and morphogenesis.
Keywords:
signaling pathways; tyrosine kinase receptor; protein–protein interaction; SH2 domain; post translational modification; signal transduction