Eph receptors, the largest receptor tyrosine kinases, and their ephrin ligands play important roles in axon guidance and cell migration during development of the nervous system. Recently, these molecules are also found involved in tumorigenesis of different kinds of cancers. In this study, we demonstrated that expression of ephrin-A1 was dramatically down-regulated in glioma cell lines and in primary gliomas compared to the matched normal tissues. Forced expression of ephrin-A1 attenuated cell migration, cell proliferation, and adhesion-independent growth in human glioma U251 cells. EphA2, a receptor for ephrin-A1 and an oncoprotein, was greatly decreased in ephrin-A1-transfected glioma cells. Overexpression of ephrin-A1 stimulated activation of EphA2 by phosphorylation and led to its degradation. Furthermore, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), a known downstream molecule of EphA2, was also down-regulated in the ephrin-A1 transfected cells. These results suggested that ephrin-A1 serves as a critical negative regulator in the tumorigenesis of gliomas by down-regulating EphA2 and FAK, which may provide potential valuable targets for therapeutic intervention.

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