Description
Neuronal, endocrine and exocrine cells exhibit regulated exocytosis but there is also a body of evidence for regulated exocytosis from other cell types. Myofibroblasts are a stromal cell type that secretes extracellular matrix proteins, growth factors and cytokines; they are important in wound healing and increasingly are recognised to play a role in modifying the cellular microenvironment in cancer. We have established calcium dependent regulated secretion in a subset of myofibroblasts from gastric cancers, adjacent tissue and from normal tissue. We have used microarrays to look for the expression of genes associated with the regulated secretory phenotype.