Researchers from the Georgia Health Sciences University Cancer Center found that laboratory mice bred without the gene lacked a protein called TREM-1 which protected them from developing liver cancer after exposure to carcinogens.
"We have long suspected that chronic inflammation is a very powerful tool in the initiation of cancer, and also in the progression or metastasis of cancer," lead researcher Dr Anatolij Horuzsko, said.
"We [looked] at the molecules that control inflammatory responses to gain a better understanding of how this process works. One important triggering receptor for inflammation is TREM-1," Horuzsko said in a statement.
TREM-1's role in promoting inflammation is useful in cases such as battling viral or bacterial infections and in maintaining normal tissue function.
Horuzsko's team discovered that in abnormal conditions such as liver damage due to alcohol abuse or other irritants production of TREM-1 goes haywire.
A chronic, low-level state of inflammation is produced as TREM-1 leads to the development of other inflammatory agents, which causes more damage, increases cell production and creates mutated cells.
These mutated cells then reproduce
