Functional studies of a novel oncogene TGM3 in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the role of transglutaminase 3 (TGM3) gene in human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), and analyze its relationship with clinicopathological parameters.


METHODS
Gene expression of TGM3 in fresh esophageal cancer tissues and their corresponding normal mucosas was detected immunohistochemically (IHC) by means of tissue microarray (TMA). Its correlation with clinical characteristics was evaluated and analyzed by univariate analysis. All statistical analyses were performed by SPSS version 10.0.


RESULTS
Expression rate of TGM3 was reduced to 81.8% in ESCC. Expression of TGM3 was significantly inversely correlated with histological grade of esophageal carcinoma (in grade I, II and III tumors, the reduced expression was 4/7, 57/71, and 20/21, respectively, P < 0.05), whereas it had no obvious correlations with lymph node metastasis and depth of invasion.


CONCLUSIONS
Reduced expression of TGM3 may play an important role in esophageal carcinogenesis.
Liu
Wei
W
Department of Thoracic Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
Yu
Zai-Cheng
ZC
Cao
Wen-Feng
WF
Ding
Fang
F
Liu
Zhi-Hua
ZH
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009857:Oncogenes / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D011503:Transglutaminases / Q000378:metabolism*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C498712:TGM3 protein, human; D011503:Transglutaminases