Abstract
Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive malignant disease having very limited therapeutic options that ultimately results in its poor prognosis. It is still elusive on the etiology and tumorigenic mechanisms of pancreatic cancer. In the present report, we provide evidence showing involvement of the mineral dust-induced gene (mdig) in the pathogenesis and prognosis of the pancreatic cancer. Using immunohistochemistry approach on human pancreatic cancer tissue microarray, we found differential expression of mdig in pancreatic adenocarcinoma and normal pancreas. Based on the staining intensities of mdig in these tissue samples, we found that 12% of the cancer tissues were strongly positive for mdig, 39% and 31% were moderately and weakly positive respectively. Several alternatively spliced mdig mRNAs were detected in the selected pancreatic cancer cell lines. Through R2 platform for the patient survival analysis (http://r2.amc.nl), we found that enrichment of some specific exon of mdig predicates different survival rate of the pancreatic cancer patients. In summary, our findings may help in assessing the role of mdig in the pathogenesis of the pancreatic cancer and the prognosis of the pancreatic cancer patients.
Highlights
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the United States [1]
We evaluated the expression of mdig in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines at protein and mRNA levels
An over expression of mdig has been observed in a number of human cancers, implying its important role in the pathogenesis of human malignancies
Summary
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in both men and women in the United States [1]. The mineral dust- induced gene (mdig) was first identified in alveolar macrophages from patients with chronic lung diseases resulting from occupational exposure to mineral dust in mining industry [7]. This gene was independently characterized in human glioblastoma cell lines with an over expression of c-myc oncogene and named as myc-induced nuclear antigen 53 (MINA 53) [8] or nucleolar protein 52 (NO52) [9]. We evaluated the expression of mdig in pancreatic adenocarcinoma cell lines at protein and mRNA levels. Through R2: Genomics Analysis, we found opposite predictive power of different exon regions for the survival of the pancreatic cancer patients, which possibly suggested diversified roles of the alternatively spliced mdig mRNAs in the pathogenesis and prognosis of the pancreatic cancer
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