Maspin and suppression of tumor metastasis

Maspin is a member of the family of Serine Protease Inhibitors or serpins. Since its discovery in 1994, considerable amount of information has been gathered regarding its role in normal tissue development and pathological processes, such as tumorigenesis and metastasis. It is now well recognized that maspin is unique serpin with tumor suppressing activities. Like many of its serpin family members, maspin possesses multiple functions, including antimigration, anti-invasion, induction of apoptosis, and anti-angiogenesis. Its functions are dependent on its cellular locations: Extracellular, intracellular, mitochondria, and nucleus. This chapter covers three major topics on maspin research: Biological functions of maspin, regulation of maspin gene expression, and modeling breast cancers in mice with maspin as a paradigm. Our goal is to provide readers with a comprehensive analysis of maspin study by many maspin researchers in the past few years and also with unique insights on our study of maspin functions in mouse model in vivo.