Abstract
Trypsin is a serine protease family member with a potential role in cancer invasion. We investigated trypsinogen expression at the RNA level in 49 esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs) and 72 gastric adenocarcinomas. Almost all primary ESCC tissues (95%) showed reduced expression, and 9 of 13 ESCC cell lines were silenced for trypsinogen expression. Absent expression correlated with promoter hypermethylation of trypsinogen-4 by bisulfite DNA sequence. Moreover, we detected promoter hypermethylation in 50% of primary ESCCs by methylation-specific PCR. A subset of gastric adenocarcinomas (71%) also showed reduced trypsinogen accompanied by reduction in PAR2, a G protein activated by trypsin, and a propensity to penetrate beyond the gastric wall (P = 0.001). Our results support the notion that trypsin plays a tumor-suppressive role in human carcinoma.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 6575-6578 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Cancer Research |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue number | 20 |
| State | Published - Oct 15 2003 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research