Abstract
Transcription factors are involved in cell cycle and apoptosis regulation and thus have a key role in the carcinogenesis of different tumors. Nuclear factor of activated T-cells, cytoplasmic 2 (NFATc2) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG) transcription factors are important in the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer (CRC). In this study, we examined whether the expression of NFATc2 and PPARG genes is significantly altered during the carcinogenesis of CRC. A total of 47 tumor samples and matched normal tissue margins were collected during surgery from patients with CRC. In addition, three CRC cell lines (HCT119, SW480, and HT29) and healthy cell line were used. After total RNA extraction and cDNA synthesis, mRNA expression levels of NFATc2 and PPARG were examined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. The results showed that NFATc2 is overexpressed in the tumor tissues compared with normal tissue margins (p ≤ 0.05). However, the mRNA expression levels of PPARG were not significantly different between the tumor tissues and tissue margins. Our results indicate that NFATc2 may be used as an early diagnostic or predictive biomarker for CRC as well as a therapeutic target, providing that upcoming studies confirm these results.
Highlights
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death and colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer worldwide [1]
After the extraction of RNA and construction of complementary DNA (cDNA) library, gene specific PCR was performed to confirm that the poly(A) cDNA can be used to detect the expression of NFATc2 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARG)
Our results showed that NFATc2 was markedly upregulated in CRC tissues compared with normal tissue margins, suggesting that the high expression of NFATc2 might be associated with colorectal carcinogenesis
Summary
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death and colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most prevalent cancer worldwide [1]. Different factors such as obesity, physical inactivity, smoking cigarettes, inflammation, and genetic factors play important roles in the development of CRC. CRC initiation is associated with genetic variation; for example, in nearly 10% of CRC cases, hereditary impairments were detected as the underlying cause [2]. Alterations of Submitted: 24 December 2016/Accepted: 24 February 2017 different genes in cancer cells contribute to the changes in the related molecular pathways. Among the important molecular pathways in cancer development are the Wnt signaling pathways. The genes associated with the Wnt signaling are potential therapeutic targets, especially in CRC [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
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