Gene expression profiles at different stages of human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

AIM: To characterize the gene expression profiles in differentstages of carcinogenesis of esophageal epithelium.METHODS: A microarray containing 588 cancer relatedgenes was employed to study the gene expression profileat different stages of esophageal squamous cell carcinomaincluding basal cell hyperplasia, high-grade dysplasia,carcinoma in situ, early and late cancer. Principle componentanalysis was performed to search the genes which wereimportant in carcinogenesis.RESULTS: More than 100 genes were up or down regulatedin esophageal epithelial cells during the stages of basal cellhyperplasia, high-grade dysplasia, carcinoma in situ, earlyand late cancer. Principle component analysis identified aset of genes which may play important roles in the tumordevelopment. Comparison of expression profiles betweenthese stages showed that some genes, such as P160ROCK,JNK2, were activated and may play an important role inearly stages of carcinogenesis. CONCLUSION: These findings provided an esophagealcancer-specific and stage-specific expression profiles,showing that complex alterations of gene expression underliethe development of malignant phenotype of esophagealcancer cells.

Overexpression of ETS2 in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

AIM: To study the expression pattern of ETS2 (erythroblastosisvirus oncogene homolog 2) in human esophageal squamouscell carcinoma (ESCC).METHODS: Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) and Northern blot were performed to examinethe expression level of ETS2 mRNA in 37 pairs of ESCCtissue samples. Western blot and immunohistochemistrywere carried out to check the expression level of ETS2 proteinin 30 pairs of ESCC tissue specimens.RESULTS: RT-PCR and Northern blot analysis showed thatETS2 mRNA upregulated in 75.7 % (28/37) examined ESCCtissues relative to matched normal tissues. From those 37cases, 14 cases were randomly selected to perform Westernblot and the results revealed that ETS2 protein overexpressedin 71.4 % (10/14) checked ESCC tissues compared with thecorresponding normal tissues. Moreover, the expressionpatterns of ETS2 protein in those 14 cases were identical tothose of ETS2 mRNA displayed by RT-PCR or Northern Blot.Immunohistochemistry analysis showed that the expressionlevel of ETS2 protein rose in 75 % (12/16) tumor epithelialcells contrasted to the normal cells. Altogether the expressionlevel of ETS2 protein increased in 73.3 % (22/30) checkedESCC tissue samples contrary to their normal counterparts.CONCLUSION: The results suggested that ETS2overexpressed in paired human ESCC tissue samples at bothmRNA and protein levels and may be associated with thetumorigenesis of esophagus.