HEDGEHEP

The cellular origins of Hepatocellular Carcinoma: possible role for Hedgehog pathway

 Coordinatore TARTU ULIKOOL 

 Organization address address: ULIKOOLI 18
city: TARTU
postcode: 50090

contact info
Titolo: Prof.
Nome: Toivo
Cognome: Maimets
Email: send email
Telefono: 3727375028
Fax: 3727420286

 Nazionalità Coordinatore Estonia [EE]
 Totale costo 45˙000 €
 EC contributo 45˙000 €
 Programma FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)
 Code Call FP7-PEOPLE-2007-2-2-ERG
 Funding Scheme MC-ERG
 Anno di inizio 2008
 Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) 2008-01-01   -   2010-12-31

 Partecipanti

# participant  country  role  EC contrib. [€] 
1    TARTU ULIKOOL

 Organization address address: ULIKOOLI 18
city: TARTU
postcode: 50090

contact info
Titolo: Prof.
Nome: Toivo
Cognome: Maimets
Email: send email
Telefono: 3727375028
Fax: 3727420286

EE (TARTU) coordinator 0.00

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 Word cloud

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liver    gpr    involvement    expression    characterization    cell    gene    hedgehog    stem    cancer    hcc    human    progenitor    cells    hh    pathway    cancers   

 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The incidence of Human Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) has been constantly increasing over last decades. Owing one of the highest mortality rates among cancers the HCC is resistant to the conventional cancer treatments. Therefore new approaches to treat this disease are vitally needed. The Hedgehog (HH) pathway has been recently implicated in the pathogenesis of several human cancers including those of the gastrointestinal tract. There is evidence that the HH pathway might be important in regulating the homeostasis of the liver and its deregulation might contribute to the development of the liver cancer. In the current project the involvement of the HH pathway in the liver cancer will be investigated in more detail taking advantage of transgenic animal models. The following tasks will be fulfilled: 1. Characterization of the involvement of hedgehog signaling in regulation of liver stem/progenitor pool and liver carcionogenesis. 2. The description of expression of GPR49 in normal liver and liver cancer. The effect of deletion or overexpression of this gene in liver development. 3. Investigate the possible existence of liver cancer stem cells. Characterization of GPR49 as possible marker of liver cancer stem cells. 4. Verification of the activity of known HH inhibitors on hepatic progenitor cells and possible liver cancer stem cells. The methodology involves monitoring the cellular composition of liver by means of flow cytometry and advanced imaging, evaluating the stem-cell and oncogenic potential of sorted cells by in vitro growth assays and in vivo transplantation experiments combined with lineage tracing using genetic markers. The gene expression signatures will be analyzed in the potential stem cell populations and based on these the pathways of interest will be studied in detail. This project will provide new insights into the process of cancer formation in the liver and provide new targets for therapy of one of the deadliest cancer forms.'

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