Study of Sonic hedgehog signaling pathway related molecules in gastric carcinoma

AIM： To study the expression of Sonic hedgehog pathway-related molecules, Sonic hedgehog （Shh） and Glil in gastric carcinoma. METHODS： Expression of Shh in 56 gastric specimens including non-cancerous gastric tissues, gastric adenocarcinoma, gastric squamous cell carcinoma was detected by RT-PCR, in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry. Expression of Glil was observed by in situ hybridization. RESULTS： The positive rate of Shh and Glil expression was 0.0%, 0.0% in non-cancerous gastric tissues while it was 66.7%, 57.8% respectively in gastric adenocarcinoma, and 100%, 100% respectively in gastric squamous cell carcinoma. There was a significant difference between the non-cancerous gastric tissues and gastric carcinoma （P 〈 0.05）. Elevated expression of Shh and Glil in gastric tubular adenocarcinoma was associated with poorly differentiated tumors while the expression was absent in gastric mucinous adenocarcinoma. CONCLUSION： The elevated expression of Shh and Glil in gastric adenocarcinoma and gastric squamous cell carcinoma shows the involvement of activated Shh signaling in the cellular proliferation of gastric carcinogenesis. It suggests Shh signaling gene may be a new and good target gene for gastric tumor diagnosis and therapy.

Polymorphisms in tumor necrosis factor genes and susceptibility to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and gastric cardiac adenocarcinoma in a population of high incidence region of North China

Background We investigated the possible association of the functional polymorphisms in the tumor necrosis factor （TNF） genes with susceptibility to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma （ESCC） and gastric cardiac adenocarcinoma （GCA）.Methods The TNF-α-308G/A and TNF-β ＋ 252G/A single nucleotide polymorphisms （SNPs） were genotyped using polymerase-chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism （PCR-RFLP） analysis, in 555 cancer patients （291 ESCC and 264 GCA） and 437 healthy controls in a high incidence region of North China. Results Among healthy controls, frequencies of the TNF-α 1/1, 1/2 and 2/2 genotypes were 89.4% ,9.2% and 1.4% respectively, while frequencies of the TNF-β B1/B1, B1/B2 and B2/B2 genotypes were 12.6% , 32.3% and 55.1%, respectively. No significant difference was found in the overall genotype and allelotype distribution of the TNF-α-308G/A and TNF-β ＋ 252G/A SNPs among cancer patients and controls. However, both the B1/B1 genotype and B1/B2 genotype significantly increased the risk of developing ESCC [ the age and gender adjusted odds ratio （OR） =2.04 and 1.91, 95% confidence interval （CI） = 1.04 -4.43 and 1.14 - 2.60, respectively] and GCA （the age and gender adjusted OR =2. 68 and 2. 64, 95% CI = 1.14 -6.29 and 1.47 -4.72, respectively） in individuals with negative family history of UGIC, in comparison with the B2/B2 genotype. When the two TNF polymorphisms were combined and analyzed, individuals with the TNF-β B1/B2 and TNF-α1/2 or 2/2 genotypes significantly reduced the risk of developing ESCC and GCA, in comparison with those harboring the TNF-β B2/B2 and TNF-α 1/1 genotypes （ the age and gender adjusted OR = 0.37 and 0. 34, 95% CI =0. 15 -0.92 and 0. 13 -0.90, respectively）. Conclusions Therefore, the TNF-α -308G/A and TNF-β ＋ 252G/A genotyping may be used as a stratification markers to predicate the risk of ESCC and GCA development in North China.