TY - JOUR T1 - Integrin a6 loss promotes colitis-associated colorectal cancer. Response to: “Integrin a6 variants and colorectal cancer” by Beaulieu JF JF - Gut JO - Gut DO - 10.1136/gutjnl-2017-315727 SP - gutjnl-2017-315727 AU - Adèle De Arcangelis AU - Mathias Chamaillard AU - Patricia Simon-Assmann AU - Michel Labouesse Y1 - 2018/01/03 UR - http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2018/01/03/gutjnl-2017-315727.abstract N2 - In a recently published letter,1 Dr Beaulieu questions our recent publication suggesting that α6 integrin acts as a tumour suppressor gene in colorectal cancer (CRC),2 given the apparent antagonistic role of α6A and α6B integrin isoforms in the intestine. We thank him for raising this important issue and welcome the opportunity of clarifying the topic. We showed that mice failing to express the α6 integrin (both α6A and α6B isoforms) specifically in intestinal epithelial cells (α6ΔIEC) spontaneously develop fully penetrant colitis and adenocarcinoma afterwards.2 These mice display epithelium detachment from the basement membrane, followed … ER -