Fascin is an evolutionarily conserved actin bundling
protein that localizes to microspikes, filopodia and actin-based protrusions underneath the plasma membrane.
fascin has received a lot of attention among
cytoskeletal proteins because multiple clinical studies have implicated its expression in
cancer progression and
metastasis. this may be because
fascin is not normally expressed in epithelial tissues and when it is upregulated as a part of a program of
cancer cell epithelial to mesenchymal progression it confers special motility and invasion properties on
cancer cells. in normal adult tissues,
fascin expression is high in neurons and dendritic cells; both cell types have striking large filopodia and are highly motile. it is not clear how
fascin promotes invasive motility in
cancer cells, but many studies have implicated filopodia formation in motility and we have recently provided new evidence that
fascin stabilizes actin bundles in invasive foot structures termed invadopodia in
cancer cells Figure 1.1 Here we review some of the evidence implicating
fascin in motility, invasion and
cancer aggressiveness, and we speculate that by stabilizing actin,
fascin provides cells with powerful invasive properties that may confer increased metastatic potential.