Increased muscle ubiquitin mRNA levels in gastric cancer patients

The intramuscular ATP-dependent ubiquitin (Ub)-proteasome proteolytic syste m is hyperactivated in experimental cancer cachexia. The present study aime d at verifying whether the expression of the muscle Ub mRNA is altered in p atients with cancer. Total muscle RNA was extracted using the guanidinium i sothiocyanate/phenol/chloroform method from rectus abdominis biopsies obtai ned intraoperatively from 20 gastric cancer (GC) patients and 10 subjects w ith benign abdominal diseases (CON) undergoing surgery. Ub mRNA levels were measured by northern blot analysis. Serum soluble tumor necrosis factor re ceptor (sTNFR) was measured by ELISA. Ub mRNA levels (arbitrary units, mean s +/- SD) were 2,345 +/- 195 in GC and 1,162 +/- 132 in CON (P = 0.0005). U b mRNA levels directly correlated with disease stage (r = 0.608, P = 0.005) , being 1,945 +/- 786 in stages I and II, 2,480 +/- 650 in stage III, and 3 ,799 +/- 66 in stage IV. Ub mRNA and sTNFR did not correlate with age and n utritional parameters. This study confirms experimental data indicating an overexpression of muscle Ub mRNA in cancer cachexia. Lack of correlation wi th nutritional status suggests that Ub activation in human cancer is an ear ly feature that precedes any clinical sign of cachexia.