H. Hasegawa et al., EXPRESSION SPECTRUM OF MELANOMA ANTIGEN-ENCODING GENE FAMILY MEMBERS IN COLORECTAL-CARCINOMA, Archives of pathology and laboratory medicine, 122(6), 1998, pp. 551-554
Citations number
22
Categorie Soggetti
Pathology,"Medical Laboratory Technology","Medicine, Research & Experimental
Objective.-The 12 members of the human melanoma antigen-encoding (MAGE
) gene family encode tumor-specific peptide antigens. Some antigens co
ded by the MAGE genes are potentially useful for cancer-specific immun
otherapy. However, little information on the expression of these genes
in human colon carcinomas is available. We investigated the expressio
n of 10 of the 12 genes in human colon tissue. Design.-Eighty pairs of
tumor and normal tissue samples from the human colon were studied by
means of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. Results.-Non
e of the genes was expressed in the 80 control samples of normal tissu
e. On the other hand, expression was recognized in tumor samples, rang
ing from 5% of samples for MAGE-6 to 44% for MAGE-8. Seventy of the 80
tumor samples (88%) expressed at least 1 of the 10 MAGE genes. The fr
equency of liver metastasis was significantly higher in cases with tum
or samples that expressed MAGE-3 than in those that did not express th
is gene. This tendency was not observed for other members of the MAGE
gene family No significant differences were observed in the other clin
icopathologic factors between any MAGE-positive and -negative tumor ca
ses. Conclusions.-The MAGE genes were exclusively expressed in carcino
ma tissues and not in normal tissues of the colon. The finding that ne
arly 90% of tumors expressed at least one MAGE gene indicates the poss
ible clinical use of this gene for both immunotherapy and molecular di
agnosis.