Regulation of vascular endothelial growth factor expression by homeodomain-interacting protein kinase-2.

Homeodomain-interacting protein kinase-2 (HIPK2) plays an essential role in restraining tumor progression as it may regulate, by itself or within multiprotein complexes, many proteins (mainly transcription factors) involved in cell growth and apoptosis. This study takes advantage of the recent finding that HIPK2 may repress the beta-catenin transcription activity. Thus, we investigated whether HIPK2 overexpression may down-regulate vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels (a beta-catenin target gene) and the role of beta-catenin in this regulation, in order to consider HIPK2 as a tool for novel anti-tumoral therapeutical approaches.

Pubmed ID: 18644116 RIS Download