Decreased expression of DCC mRNA in human colorectal cancers

✍ Scribed by Fumio Itoh; Yuji Hinoda; Mutsumi Ohe; Yasuo Ohe; Toshihiro Ban; Takao Endo; Kohzoh Imai And; Akira Yachi

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: French
• Weight: 541 KB
• Volume: 53
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7136
• DOI: 10.1002/ijc.2910530215

✦ Synopsis

The mRNA expression levels of DCC gene, which is cloned from the deleted region of chromosome 18q in colorectal cancers and thought to be a tumor-suppressor gene, was evaluated in tissue specimens surgically resected from patients with colorectal cancer by RT-PCR. This method was chosen as the expression level of DCC mRNA is below the detectable level for Northern-blot analysis. Semi-quantitative measurements of DCC mRNA were performed based on a standard curve defined by serial dilution of DCC cDNA. As a result, the expression level of DCC mRNA was found to be lower in I7 out of 30 colorectal cancers than in adjacent non-cancerous tissues. Inclusion of smooth muscle in tissue specimens was observed to have little disturbing effect on comparisons between cancerous and noncancerous regions. In addition, all 4 specimens of colorectal cancer with liver metastasis showed the decreased expression level of DCC mRNA, suggesting that functional loss of DCC in cancerous tissues may play an important role in metastatic events.