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Immunostaining with antibodies to human relaxin (H2) suggests the presence of a relaxin-like peptide in the gastrointestinal tract and its tumours. The peptide is present in the cytoplasm of non-neoplastic cells at sites of cell exfoliation: the surface cells of the stomach, the small intestinal villi and the surface cells of the colon. It also occurs in the cytoplasm of gastric parietal cells and carcinomas of both the stomach and the colon. Relaxin has been shown to stimulate collagenase gene expression and to down-modulate collagen synthesis and secretion in human skin fibroblasts. The distribution of relaxin shown here suggests that it could play a role in the detachment of non-neoplastic cells from their basement membranes at the end of the cell cycle and in the penetration of carcinoma cells through the basement membrane.

Journal of Endocrinology (1994) 140, 321–325