Urotensin II contributes to the formation of lung adenocarcinoma inflammatory microenvironment through the NF-κB pathway in tumor-bearing nude mice.

Urotensin II (UII), a somatostatin-like cyclic peptide, was originally isolated from the fish urophysis. Our previous study showed that UII stimulates the proliferation of A549 lung adenocarcinoma cells and promotes tumor growth in a nude mouse xenograft model, suggesting that UII may contribute to the pathogenesis of lung adenocarcinoma. In this study, the underlying mechanism for UII to promote lung adenocarcinoma growth was explored by observing the effect of UII on the tumor inflammatory microenvironment in tumor-bearing nude mice.