A research team led by Professor Ssang-Goo Cho of the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Konkuk University found that keratin 19 (KRT19) was high in breast cancers and correlated with their invasiveness. Keratins are intermediate filament proteins that form epithelial cells. There are a total of 54 keratins in human bodies, but individual characteristics and functions remain unknown. The high expression of acid type I KRT19 common in ductal epithelial cells led the KU research team to study its role in cancer cells.
The research team also found that KRT 19 knockdown led to proliferation of breast cancer properties, and that the β-catenin-NUMB-NOTCH mechanism plays a critical role. In addition, expression of KRT19 was suppressed in cancer stem-like cells derived from breast cancer patients through decreased cell proliferation, cell migration, and drug resistance. The results were published on the online version of Oncogene, a sister publication of Nature, in an article titled “KRT19 Directly Interacts with β-catenin/RAC1 Complex to Regulate NUMB-dependent NOTCH Signaling Pathway and Breast Cancer Properties” on June 27, 2016.