Metastasis of squamous cell carcinoma of the oral tongue is associated with down-regulation of epidermal fatty acid binding protein (E-FABP).
Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the tongue is one of the most common cancers encountered in India, due to the prevalent habits of tobacco chewing and smoking. Up to 40% of the early stage tumours (clinical N0 M0) presenting at the Tata Memorial Hospital have occult cervical lymph node metastasis. Therefore, features in the primary tumour that would predict metastasis would be very useful for designing therapeutic approaches. Hence, we aimed at detecting genotypic markers of the metastatic sub-clones within the heterogeneous primary tumour population. We studied the differential expression of mRNAs between the primary tumour samples of SCC of the oral tongue and their metastasis by differential display analysis and identified a gene, FABP5, coding for Epidermal fatty acid binding protein (E-FABP-GenBank Accession ). Its expression was up to 4-fold higher in the primary tumours (67%) as compared to the corresponding metastatic lymph nodes by northern blot analysis.
Uma
Ramanathan S
RS
Department of Pathology, Tata Memorial Hospital, Dr. Ernest Borges Road, Parel, Mumbai 400 012, India. umaramnathan@hotmail.com
Naresh
Kikkeri N
KN
D'Cruz
Anil K
AK
Mulherkar
Rita
R
Borges
Anita M
AM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D015152:Blotting, Northern; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism*; D015536:Down-Regulation; D050556:Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary*; D006801:Humans; D008198:Lymph Nodes; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014062:Tongue Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C493412:FABP5 protein, human; D050556:Fatty Acid-Binding Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger