Open Access

REVIEW

Roles of pleiotrophin in tumor growth and angiogenesis

Evangelia Papadimitriou, Constantinos Mikelis, Evgenia Lampropoulou, Marina Koutsioumpa, Katerina Theochari, Sotiria Tsirmoula, Christina Theodoropoulou, Margarita Lamprou, Evanthia Sfaelou, Dionyssios Vourtsis, Panagiotis Boudouris

Laboratory of Molecular Pharmacology, Department of Pharmacy, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

* Corresponding Author: E. Papadimitriou,

European Cytokine Network 2009, 20(4), 180-190. https://doi.org/10.1684/ecn.2009.0172

Accepted 12 June 2009;

Abstract

Pleiotrophin (PTN) is a heparin-binding growth factor with diverse biological activities, the moststudied of these being those related to the nervous system, tumor growth and angiogenesis. Although interest inthe involvement of PTN in tumor growth is increasing, many questions remain unanswered, particularly con-cerning the receptors and the signaling pathways involved. In this review, we briefly introduce PTN, and sum-marize data on its involvement in tumor growth and angiogenesis, and on what is known to date concerningthe receptors and pathways involved.

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Keywords

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