Research progress in the expression of versican in malignant tumors and its biological roles

Abstract

Malignant tumors pose a serious threat to human health and are one of the main causes of human death worldwide. In order to further improve the therapeutic outcomes of malignant tumors and prolong patients' survival time, clarifying the pathogenesis of malignant tumors and searching for new diagnostic and therapeutic targets become particularly important. It has been found that the occurrence and development of malignant tumors are the results of the interaction between tumor cells and the tumor microenvironment (TME). Versican, encoded by the VCAN gene, is a type of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan belonging to the exogenous lectin proteoglycan family. It is a major component of the extracellular matrix and plays an important role in embryonic development and inflammatory responses. As an important component of TME, versican is abnormally expressed in various tumor tissues such as renal cell carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and gastric cancer, and is closely related to the clinical pathological characteristics and prognosis of the patients. It is a potential biomarker for early diagnosis and prognostic evaluation of tumors. Further researches have shown that versican can promote tumor development in a number of ways, such as promoting tumor cell proliferation, invasion and metastasis, inhibiting tumor cell apoptosis, promoting tumor angiogenesis, and inhibiting anti-tumor immune responses. This article reviews the current research status of the expression and biological effects of versican in malignant tumors, aiming to provide reference for subsequent research, clinical diagnosis and treatment of tumors.

Keywords

• versican
• malignant tumor
• tumor microenvironment
• extracellular matrix