In view of the above, it has been suggested that the anti-cancer properties of fish oil are
dependent on activation of PPARγ; however, the downstream events involved in this process
remain unclear. One of the potential targets for PPARγ ligands is integrin-linked kinase (ILK),
which links cell-adhesion receptors, integrins, and growth factors to the actin cytoskeleton and
to a range of signaling pathways that are implicated in the regulation of anchorage-dependent
cell growth/survival, cell cycle progression, invasion and migration, and tumor angiogenesis
(12). Moreover, overexpression of ILK results in oncogenic transformation and progression to
invasive and metastatic phenotypes (13,14). Thus, we explored the effects of fish oil on ILK
expression. This work revealed that fish oil inhibits NSCLC proliferation by suppressing ILK
expression through activation of PPARγ. This results in the activation of P38 mitogen activated
protein kinase (p38 MAPK) and induction of AP-2α, which in turn inhibits ILK gene
expression. To our knowledge, this is the first report linking fish oil to ILK expression