Increased nuclear localization of substance P in human gastric tumor cells.
Gastric cancer (GC) is an aggressive disease that remains the fourth most common type of cancer and is the second leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Treatment of advanced or metastatic GC has seen little progress and median overall survival in this group remains <1 year. It is urgent to investigate new mechanisms to understand GC progression. It is known that substance P (SP), after binding to the neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor, elicits GC proliferation; that GC cells and samples express NK-1 receptors; that NK-1 receptor antagonists, in a concentration dependent manner, inhibit the proliferation of GC cells and that these cells die by apoptosis. However, the presence of SP in GC and normal gastric cells is unknown. In order to know more on the involvement of the SP/NK-1 receptor system in GC, we studied in thirty human GC and normal gastric samples the immunolocalization of SP after using an immunohistochemical technique. SP was observed in the cytoplasm and in the nucleus of GC and normal gastric cells. The nuclear expression of SP was higher in GC cells than in normal cells. No significant difference was observed when the cytoplasmatic expression of SP in normal and GC cells was compared. The findings suggest that SP plays an important role in both nuclear function and GC.
Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, Research Laboratory on Neuropeptides (IBIS), Sevilla, Spain. Electronic address: mmunoz@cica.es.
Miguel
M
Muñoz
Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, Research Laboratory on Neuropeptides (IBIS), Sevilla, Spain.
Marisa
M
Rosso
Virgen del Rocío University Hospital, Research Laboratory on Neuropeptides (IBIS), Sevilla, Spain.
Andrés
A
Carranza
Institute of Neurosciences of Castilla y León (INCYL), Laboratory of Neuroanatomy of the Peptidergic Systems (Lab. 14), University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
Rafael
R
Coveñas
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002467:Cell Nucleus / Q000473:pathology; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021381:Protein Transport; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013373:Substance P / Q000378:metabolism*
D013373:Substance P
Inmunohistochemistry; Nucleus; Stomach; Tachykinin