Recent Researches on the Notch Signaling Pathway

The Notch signaling pathway is an evolutionarily conserved signal transduction system.Notch signaling transduces signals through receptor-ligand interactions,therefore playing important roles in cellular developmental pathway including proliferation,differentiation and apoptosis.The roles of Notch signaling in maintaining the balance among cell proliferation,differentiation and apoptosis suggests that it is potentially involved in the aberrant regulation in tumor cells.Recent studies have shown that in many tumor cell lines,Notch genes were abnormally activated and aberrant Notch signaling was correlated with regulation of tumor cells.This review focuses on the physiological functions of Notch signaling and its regulation on tumor cells.