title: Expression of early growth response gene-1 in precancerous lesions of gastric cancer.
abstract: Several studies have demonstrated a correlation between the expression of early growth response gene-1 (EGR-1) and the progression of gastric cancers at advanced stages. However, the effects of EGR-1 expression on human gastric cancer progression, particularly on precancerous lesions, have not been investigated. In this study, we evaluate EGR-1 expression levels in target mucosa from patients with early gastric cancer and precancerous lesions, and assess whether EGR-1 expression affects the oncogenic phenotypes of human gastric cancer cells. EGR-1 protein levels were measured in tissues from subjects with normal mucosa (n=6), low-grade dysplasia (n=6), high-grade dysplasia (n=4) and adenocarcinoma (n=3) using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunohistochemistry analyses. We also investigated the role of EGR-1 in tumor cell behavior by transiently expressing a dominant active EGR-1 variant in cultured cells. A positive correlation was observed between EGR-1 expression and gastric carcinogenesis (P=0.016). Furthermore, there was an increase in nuclear and cytoplasmic expression of EGR-1 in accordance with the histological grade (P for trends=0.003 and 0.003, respectively), and a positive association between the sum of the nuclear and cytoplasmic EGR-1 expression values and the histological grade (P=0.003). In addition, transient overexpression of EGR-1 enhanced cell proliferation, stimulated cell migration, and promoted the phosphorylation of p38 MAPK and AKT in gastric cancer cellsin vitro. Our findings demonstrate that EGR-1 may contribute to the early stages of gastric carcinogenesis via the alteration of tumor cell behaviors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seon-Young
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Young
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Su-Mi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Endocrinology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jin Ook
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Chonnam National University Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung-Hwa
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chung-Hwan
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chang-Hwan
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hyun-Soo
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung-Kyu
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jong-Sun
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Rew
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Science and Technology, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwangju 501-757, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Do
authors.initials: YD
authors.lastname: Jung
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, College of Biological Science and Biotechnology, Konkuk University, Seoul 143-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yong Han
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Lee
keywords: dysplasia; early growth response gene-1; gastric cancer