EXPRESSION OF THE EPIDERMAL GROWTH-FACTOR RECEPTOR GENE IN HUMAN INTESTINAL METAPLASIA - A PRELIMINARY-REPORT

The role of growth factors/receptors in the etiopathology and/or devel opment of gastric cancer has recently come under scrutiny, since overe xpression or amplification of the EGF system has been found in many in testinal type gastric cancers and related to a more aggressive behavio r. Since these gastric carcinomas appear to develop from intestinal me taplasia, a study was planned to investigate whether overexpression of the EGF-receptor gene also occurred in intestinal metaplastic mucosa. Methods: Patients underwent upper GL endoscopy. Gastric biopsies for routine histology, Helicobacter pylori detection, quantification of in testinal metaplasia and EGF-R expression analysis were performed. A 30 mer EGF-R specific oligonucleotide was end-labeled and used to probe a dot blot filter containing the RNA from the bioptic samples. Results: Though all the gastric samples transcribed the EGF-R gene to a detect able level, overexpression of the EGF-R gene was found in the metaplas tic mucosa in a minority of patients. Conclusions: These preliminary f indings suggest that overexpression of the EGF-R gene is infrequent in the metaplastic gastric mucosa.