Expression of Angiopoietin-2 gene in non-small cell lung cancer

Abstract

To study the expression of Angiopoietin 2 (Ang-2) gene and its relationship with clinical pathological characteristics of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), expression of the Ang-2 mRNA was evaluated by employing reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in cancerous tissues and paired adjacent noncancerous tissues from 52 patients. The expression of Ang-2 gene was detected in a significantly greater proportion of cancerous tissues (80.8%) than paired adjacent noncancerous tissues (53.8%,P<0.01). No significant relationship was found between Ang-2 gene expression and patients’ age, sex, histology of tumors, differentiation and TNM stages (P>0.05). It is concluded that the up-regulation of Ang-2 gene may play a role in the pathway of NSCLC carcinogenesis and Ang-2 may be used as a potential therapeutic agent for lung cancer.

Keywords

lung cancer / gene / angiogenesis

References

[1] AhmadS A, LiuW, JungY D, et al.. Differential expression of angiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 in colon carcinoma. A possible mechanism for the initiation of angiogenesis. Cancer, 2001, 92(5): 1138-1138

[2] EtohT, InoueH, TanakaS, et al.. Angiopoietin-2 is related to tumor angiogenesis in gastric carcinoma: possible in vivo regulation via induction of proteases. Cancer Res, 2001, 61(5): 2145-2145

[3] WurmbachJ H, HammererP, SevincS, et al.. The expression of angiopoietins and their receptor Tie-2 in human prostate carcinoma. Anticancer Res, 2000, 20(6D): 5217-5217

[4] LababedeO, MezianeM A, RiceT W. TNM staging of lung cancer: a quick reference chart. Chest, 1999, 115(1): 233-233

[5] HolashJ, MaisonpierreP C, ComptonD, et al.. Vessel cooption, regression, and growth in tumors mediated by angiopoietins and VEGF. Science, 1999, 284(5422): 1994-1994

[6] TanakaK, SonooH, KurebayashiJ, et al.. Inhibition of infiltration and angiogenesis by thrombospondin-1 in papillary thyroid carcinoma. Clin Cancer Res, 2002, 8(5): 1125-1125

[7] AhmadS A, LiuW, JungY D, et al.. Differential expression of angiopoietin-1 and angiopoietin-2 in colon carcinoma. A possible mechanism for the initiation of angiogenesis. Cancer, 2001, 92(5): 1138-1138

[8] KogaK, TodakaT, MoriokaM, et al.. Expression of angiopoietin-2 in human glioma cells and its role for angiogenesis. Cancer Res, 2001, 61(16): 6248-6248

[9] HataK, UdagawaJ, FujiwakiR, et al.. Expression of angiopoietin-1, angiopoietin-2, and Tie2 genes in normal ovary with corpus luteum and in ovarian cancer. Oncology, 2002, 62(4): 340-340

[10] CurrieM J, GunninghamS P, HanC, et al.. Angiopoietin-1 is inversely related to thymidine phosphorylase expression in human breast cancer, indicating a role in vascular remodeling. Clin Cancer Res, 2001, 7(4): 918-918