Epithelial cells lining the adult human colon do not normally express gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) or its receptor (GRPR). In contrast, approximately one-third of human colon cancers and cancer cell lines have been shown to express GRP-binding sites. Because GRPR activation causes the proliferation of many cancer cell lines, GRP has been presumed to act as a clinically significant growth fac...

The mammalian bombesin peptides [gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) and neuromedin B (NMB)] are important in numerous biological and pathological processes. These effects are mediated by the heptahelical GRP receptor (GRPR) and NMB receptor (NMBR). GRP has high affinity for GRPR and lower affinity for NMBR. Almost nothing is known about the molecular basis for the selectivity of GRP. To address th...

Tumoral gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) receptors are potential targets for diagnosis and therapy using radiolabeled or cytotoxic GRP analogs. GRP-receptor overexpression has been detected in endocrine-related cancer cells and, more recently, also in the vascular bed of selected tumors. More information on vascular GRP-receptors in cancer is required to asses their potential for vascular target...

cDNA clones to human prepro-gastrin-releasing peptide (prepro-GRP) mRNA detect synthesis of prepro-GRP-related transcripts in 4 of 7 small cell lung cancer (SCLC) cell lines and 1 of 2 metastatic SCLC tumors examined. A correlation is noted between prepro-GRP gene expression and the occurrence of bombesin-related immunoreactivity in SCLC cell lines. Examination of the structure of prepro-GRP tr...

Recent studies have shown that aberrantly expressed gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) and its receptor (GRP-R) critically regulate tumor cell differentiation in colon cancers developing in humans and mice. This finding suggested that the ability of GRP/GRP-R to promote a well-differentiated phenotype in colon cancer might reflect a re-capitulation of a normal role in regulating intestinal organog...

Gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) has been suggested as a novel regulatory peptide in the female reproductive tract but the presence of GRP and GRP mRNA in the non-neurogenic tissue of the cervix has not yet been clarified. In the present study, immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization were used to reveal the distribution of GRP immunoreactivity and expression of GRP mRNA in the bovine cerv...

The relationship between receptor number and agonist-induced intracellular responses has been well studied in receptors coupled to adenylate cyclase; however, for receptors coupled to phospholipase C (PLC), very little is known about the effect of receptor number on receptor-mediated processes. To explore this issue, we investigated the effect of the number of receptors for gastrin-releasing pe...

Gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) causes multiple effects in humans by activating a specific heptaspanning receptor. Within the gastrointestinal tract, GRP receptors (GRP-R) are not normally expressed by mucosal epithelial cells except for those lining the gastric antrum. In contrast, recent studies have shown that up to 40% of resected colon cancers aberrantly express this receptor. This is impo...

Mammalian Gastrin Releasing Peptide (GRP) has a widespread distribution and multiple stimulating effects on metabolism, release of regulatory peptides, gastrointestinal and pancreatic secretions, and behaviour. GRP is a potent mitogen for a number of tumor types including colon and lung. Although GRP is known to stimulate the growth of renal tumors, little is known of its synthesis, distributio...