Expression profile of ZFX isoform3/variant 5 in gastric cancer tissues and its association with tumor size.
OBJECTIVE
Previous studies demonstrate that changes in pre-mRNA splicing play a significant role in human disease development. Furthermore, many cancer-associated genes are regulated by alternative splicing. There are mounting evidences that splice variants which express predominantly in tumors, have clear diagnostic value and may provide potential drug targets. Located on the X chromosome, ZFX gene functions as a transcription regulator for self-renewal of stem cells. This gene has 5 splice variants that encode 3 isoforms. In the present study, we evaluated the clinicopathological relevance of the expression of ZFX isoform 3/variant 5 gene in gastric carcinoma.


METHODS
A total of 60 tumoral and non-tumoral gastric specimens were evaluated for ZFX isoform 3/variant 5 gene expression using quantitative real-time PCR.


RESULTS
Our results showed that the expression of ZFX isoform 3/variant 5 transcript was heterogeneous in gastric specimens. We further showed that there was a positive correlation between the variant expression and tumor size, but not with other clinicopathological features of gastric tumors.


CONCLUSIONS
This report shows that the expression of ZFX isoform 3/variant 5 transcript was heterogeneous in gastric specimens. Furthermore, there was no significant association between ZFX isoform 3/variant 5 expression and most of clinicopathological features of gastric tumors except for a positive correlation with tumor size. The elucidation of the precise molecular mechanisms governed by the ZFX isoforms/variants needs further investigation.
Department of Genetics, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran.
Shima
S
Rahmati
Department of Genetics, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran ; Research Institute of Biotechnology, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran.
Modjtaba
M
Emadi-Baygi
Pediatric Inherited Diseases Research Center ; Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran ; Child Growth and Development Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Parvaneh
P
Nikpour
Child Growth and Development Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
Elaheh
E
Emadi-Andani
Alternative Splicing; Gastric cancer; Gene Expression; Self-renewal; ZFX