title: Increased expression of heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A2/B1 (hnRNP) in pancreatic tissue from smokers and pancreatic tumor cells.
abstract: Pancreatic cancer is a major cause of deaths in the United States, and has one of the lowest 5-year survival rates. Early diagnosis has not been possible due to the lack of reliable early tumor markers. The heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoprotein A1/B2 (hnRNP) was recently shown to be up-regulated in the early stage of lung cancer. This protein plays an important role in biogenesis and transport of mRNA. Up-regulation of hnRNP usually precedes morphological differentiation and is considered a good biomarker in the early stages of cancer development. Because smoking is a high risk factor for pancreatic cancer, this study examined the expression of hnRNP in human pancreatic tissues from smokers and non-smokers. A two-fold increase in expression of hnRNP was found overall in smokers when compared to non-smokers and smokers who quit (P<0.05). The increase in expression of hnRNP was higher in female smokers compared to female non-smokers. High levels of expression was also shown in a limited number of human pancreatic adenocarcinomas and two pancreatic tumor cell lines, HPAF-11 and SU 86.86. HP-8, a normal primary pancreatic cell line, did not express hnRNP. These results strongly suggest that up-regulation of hnRNP may be a good candidate for early screening for pancreatic cancer because of its activation in pancreatic tissue from smokers and activation in pancreatic adenocarcinomas. Over-expression of hnRNP has been suggested as evidence that normal transcriptional regulation is altered.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Epidemiology, National Center for Toxicological Research, Jefferson, AR 72079, USA.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yan-Sanders
authors.forename: George J
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Hammons
authors.forename: Beverly D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Lyn-Cook
mesh_terms: D002453:Cell Cycle; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D000076245:Heterogeneous Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein A1; D034481:Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Group A-B; D034441:Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D010179:Pancreas / Q000473:pathology; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism; D012313:RNA / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012261:Ribonucleoproteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D012907:Smoking; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D018076:DNA, Complementary; D000076245:Heterogeneous Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein A1; D034481:Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoprotein Group A-B; D034441:Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins; D012261:Ribonucleoproteins; C439768:hnRNP A2; C000619656:hnRNPA1 protein, human; D012313:RNA