Description
c-Met, also called Hepatocyte growth factor receptor (HGFR), is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MET gene. The protein possesses tyrosine kinase activity. It is a membrane receptor that is essential for embryonic development and wound healing. It induces several biological responses that collectively give rise to a program known as invasive growth. c-Met is deregulated in many types of human malignancies, including cancers of kidney, liver, stomach, breast, and brain. Normally, only stem cells and progenitor cells express the receptor, which allows these cells to grow invasively in order to generate new tissues in an embryo or regenerate damaged tissues in an adult. However, cancer stem cells are thought to hijack the ability of normal stem cells to express c-Met, and thus become the cause of cancer persistence and spread to other sites in the body