Hi,
I would like to know the reason for EGFR internalization upon EGF stimulation in cancer cells.
THANK YOU.
Iman is correct, internalization is part of the mechanism for down-regulating EGFR signalling. However it is quite complicated.
Sometimes the receptor can recycle to the cell surface depending on which EGFR ligand is involved.
Also a lot of EGFR signalling happens in early endosomes following internalization, thus it is also critical to the function of EGFR.
As I remember its internalization is a regulatory mechanism for the signal (receptor down-regulation). EGFR -EGF is well studied, you'd find detailed explanations in literature.
Iman is correct, internalization is part of the mechanism for down-regulating EGFR signalling. However it is quite complicated.
Sometimes the receptor can recycle to the cell surface depending on which EGFR ligand is involved.
Also a lot of EGFR signalling happens in early endosomes following internalization, thus it is also critical to the function of EGFR.
Terrance Grant Johns Thanks. However, can you explain the purpose of down-regulating the EGFR signaling. Cells need to sustain an EGFR signaling to keep proliferating, especially cancer cells.
The purpose is too reduce the intensity of signalling. Too much strong EGFR signalling actually kills cells! This has been shown many times.
EGFR can also translocate to the nucleus and function there--this is a nice review
PMID 22127113 .
Michael W Graner I got an EGFR degradation upon exposure to EGF. I am unable to figure out the phenomenon.
Hamadi Madhi
As said above , cells respond to high concentrations of EGF by down- regulating the receptor, so the result you got is not unexpected. Perhaps you need to expose cells to lower concentrations and observe the effect on EGFR and endosomes number/size.
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