Ping Shen

Dr. Ping Shen


Research Focus & Metrics

Academic Career Length

9Years (2018-Present)

(Calculated once Scilit publication data is synced: current year − year of first publication + 1)

Representative Publications

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PSPing Shen
Ping Shen
SYShu Yang
Shu Yang
HSHaimei Sun
Haimei Sun
GLGuilan Li
Guilan Li
BWBO WU
BO WU
DZDeshan Zhou
Deshan Zhou
Mucinous colorectal adenocarcinoma (MCA) patients often a show high risk of malignant potential and a poorer survival rate. Given that the pathological feature and oncobiological characteristics of MCA are correlated with its abundant extracellular mucin2 (MUC2), we paid interest toward investigating the key factor that promotes MUC2 production exposure to highly-activated stem cell factor (SCF)/c-KIT signaling, which we believed to contribute to MCA formation. Long-term azoxymethane and dextran sodium sulfate treatment successfully induced MCA only in wild-type (WT) mice at week 37 and 43, while all c-kit loss-of-function mutant mice (Wadsm/m) developed non-MCA. Significantly, MUC2 and its key transcriptional factor Atonal homologue 1 (Atoh1) were remarkably expressed in MCA mice compared with non-MCA mice. Atoh1 was significantly elevated in colorectal cancer (CRC) cells stimulated by exogenous SCF or overexpressing c-KIT in vitro, while decreased by the blockage of SCF/c-KIT signaling with Imatinib. Furthermore, the maintained Atoh1 protein level was due to the inactive glycogen synthase kinase 3β (p-GSK3β) by virtue of the activated SCF/c-KIT-Protein Kinase B (AKT) signaling. Similar results were obtained from the ONCOMINE database and CRC patients. In conclusion, we suggested that SCF/c-KIT signaling promoted MUC2 production and MCA tumorigenesis by maintaining Atoh1 expression. Therefore, targeting the related key molecules might be beneficial for treating MCA patients.