The deregulation of arachidonic acid metabolism‐related genes in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is 1 of the most common cancers worldwide. In our study, cDNA microarray comprising 14,803 genes was employed to identify gene-specific expression profile in 6 paired samples of ESCC. Nine genes identified were commonly upregulated and 36 downregulated in tumors, as compared to normal esophageal squamous epithelia. Among these genes, we found that 9 of the altered expression genes were related to arachidonic acid (AA) metabolism, such as annexin-I, annexin-II, S100A8, S100A10, S100P, glutathione peroxidase-3, phosphatidylcholine transfer protein, aldo-keto reductase family 1 and cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). To gain insights into the regulation of the AA metabolism pathway involved in the carcinogenesis of ESCC, we investigated the expression of 8 genes related to the AA metabolism by semiquantitative reverse transcript ( Esophageal cancer is 1 of the most lethal malignancies in the world. It exists in 2 main pathologic types, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EADC). ESCC is the predominant histologic subtype of esophageal cancer and characterized by high mortality rate and geographic differences in incidence. 1 It occurs at very high frequencies in some countries, including China and especially in the south side of the Taihang mountains on the borders of 3 provinces (Henan, Hebei and Shanxi). Due to the relatively late stage of diagnosis and the poor efficacy of treatment, 5-year survival rate is below 10%. 2 The development of better treatment modalities and better diagnostic and preventive approaches requires the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of the complex process of esophageal tumorigenesis. Genetic factors were speculated to be 1 of the most important causes for the high prevalence and familial aggregation of ESCC in China. 3 Previous studies showed that some of the complicated genetic alternation had been found in the tumorigenesis of esophagus, such as point mutations of p53 and p16; amplification of cycline D, c-myc, hst-1, int-2 and epidermal growth factor receptor; as well as allelic loss on chromosomes 3p, 5q, 9p21-22, 13q and 17p. 4 -7 But this is not sufficient to understand the common pathway of carcinogenesis and progression of ESCC. A previous study in our lab also revealed that a Mendelian autosomal recessive major gene underlying susceptibility to ESCC played a significant role in the etiology of ESCC in a moderate high-incidence area of northern China. 8 However, the molecular pathways involved in the pathogenesis of ESCC are poorly understood.Advances in cDNA microarray technologies have enabled the definition of thousands of genes' expression changes simultaneously. Previous studies have been successfully performed in ESCC. 9 -11 These studies have begun to provide valuable information to understand the development and progression of ESCC. In the present study, in order to uncover the molecular pathways involved in complicated biologic processes of the esophageal epithelium malignant transformation, we...

Annexin II represents metastatic potential in clear-cell renal cell carcinoma

“…Upregulation of ANX2 expression has been reported in hepatocellular carcinoma (Frohlich et al, 1990), lung cancer (Cole et al, 1992), pancreatic cancer (Diaz et al, 2004;Esposito et al, 2006), breast cancer (Sharma et al, 2006), gastrointestinal cancer (Singh, 2007), glioma (Reeves et al, 1992) and colorectal cancer (Emoto et al, 2001b). Conversely, downregulation of ANX2 expression has been reported in prostate cancer (Chetcuti et al, 2001;Banerjee et al, 2003;Liu et al, 2003), osteosarcoma (Gillette et al, 2004), oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (Zhi et al, 2003) and head and neck SCC (Pena-Alonso et al, 2008). This discrepancy may be explained by ANX2 expression in the histological origin of tumours, the cellular localisation and the putative function of ANX2 in tumour cells.…”

Loss of myeloid-related proteins 8 and myeloid-related proteins 14 expression in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma correlates with poor differentiation

“…Systematic approaches using microarray-based global transcriptome analysis might provide a powerful alternative with an unprecedented view scope in monitoring gene expression levels [9] . By analyzing our cDNA microarray data, we have recently identified MRP8 and MRP14 as two down-regulated and differentiation-associated genes in a significant proportion of ESCCs [10,11] . Myeloid-related protein 8 (MRP8; S100A8) and MRP14 (S100A9) are two calcium-binding proteins belonging to the S100 family [12] .…”

Expression patterns of esophageal cancer deregulated genes in C57BL/6J mouse embryogenesis

“…In the present study, many esophageal cancer deregulated genes showed differential expression during mice embryonic development. These genes covered a broad spectrum of biologic functions including cell proliferation (RPL15) [10,11] , differentiation (S100A8 [5] , SPRR2A [12] ), immune response (IGL) [13] , cytoskeletal protein (TUBA1) [14] migration (cystatin B) [15] , etc. These findings provided further clues to the possible function of these deregulated genes and the tumorigenesis of ESCC.…”

“…cDNA microarray technology allows simultaneous determination of the expression level of thousands of genes [3] . Up to date, by using the cDNA array technology, we have identified many genes differentially expressed in esophageal cancer, which potentially play key roles in the malignant behavior of esophagus [4,5] . Investigation into the biological function of these genes could be helpful to understand the molecular mechanisms in tumorigenesis of ESCC.…”