Clinical Significance of Peripheral Blood CEA mRNA Expression in Gastric Cancer Patients Underwent Curative Resection / Journal of the Korean Cancer Association, 대한암학회지

PURPOSE: Recent advances in molecular technology have made it possible to detect small numbers of circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood or bone marrow. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is an oncofetal antigen that is expressed in epithelial tumor cells. CEA mRNA may be a reliable marker for the detection of tumor cells in the peripheral blood of patients with epithelial cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the peripheral blood of 46 patients with gastric cancer who had undergone curative resection. The presence of CEA mRNA was serially monitored using RT-PCR (Preop, Post op 15 day, 2 months (m), 4 m, 6 m, 8 m, 10 m, 12 m). The clinical characteristics, serum CEA level and immunohistochemical staining of tumor tissue were also evaluated. Patients were followed up for 6 to 12 months. RESULTS: There was no significant relationship seen between CEA mRNA RT-PCR positivity in the peripheral blood and sex, stage, serum CEA level or immunohistochemical staining for CEA antigen, During follow up,eight patients experienced recurrence; were positve for CEA mRNA RT-PCR recurrence was seen in 66.7% (6/9) of the patients who before clinical recurrence as compared to 5.4% (2/37) of patients who were negative (p=0.0002). Serial changes of CEA mRNA RT-PCR correlated with clinical recurrence; 100% in the positively converted group (3/3), 0% in the negatively converted group(0/18), 50% in all positive group (3/6) and 10.5% in all negative group (2/19) experienced recurrence, respectively. CONCLUSION: RT-PCR analysis of CEA mRNA in the peripheral blood seems to be a promising tool for the early detection of micrometastatic circulating tumor cells in gastric cancer patients and may be useful in determining patients at high risk for recurrence. However, definitive correlation with recurrence certainly requires a longer follow up duration in further studies.

Leukotriene C4 synthase promoter polymorphism in aspirin - induced asthma / 천식및알레르기

BACKGROUND: Aspirin/NSAIDs can release cysteinyl-leukotriene (cys-LTs) into airways and precipitate asthmatic symptoms in aspirin - induced asthma(AIA). It has been reported that there is profound overexpression of LTC4 synthase in their bronchial mucosa, compared to aspirin-tolerant asthma. Objective : We observed whether genetic polymorphism of LTC4 synthase may be predisposed to LTC4 synthase overexpression in AIA. Subject and METHOD: Forty - four AIA patients having positive responses on lysin aspirin bron choprovocation tests and 47 non - aspirin induced asthma ( non - AIA ) patients having negative challenges and 32 healthy controls were enrolled. The genotypes of the promoter LTC4 synthase gene ( A,C transversion ) were determined by polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism ( RFLP ) method. RESULTS: LTC4 synthase promoter polymorphism ( A444C btransversion) was not significantly different between non - AIA and AIA patients (p>0.05). Conclusion These findings suggest that genetic polymorphism of LTC4 synthase promoter may not be predisposed to LTC, synthase overexpression in AIA.

A polymerphism of the angiorensin-converting enzyme gene according to the asthma severity / 천식및알레르기

BACKGROUND: The angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) has a major role in the degradation of bradykinin, tachykinin, substance P which are associated with bronchial hyperresponsiveness and inflammation. The other role of ACE is the genesis of angiotensin II which causes bronchial smooth muscle contraction. The deletion polymorphism of ACE gene(DDtype) may be related to the high serum level of ACE. OBJECTIVE: We studied to evaluate an association between the insertion /deletion polymorphism of the ACE gene and asthma, and its severity. Materials and methods: Sixty asthmatic patients and 44 healthy controls were enrolled. Severity of asthma was classified by the guideline of NHLBI/WHO workshop. The ACE genotypes of all the subjects were determined by polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: The distribution of ACE genotypes were not significantly different between healthy controls and asthma group (p)0.05). In asthmatic patients, the genetic polymorphism was similar between different severity groups (p) 0.05). Conchcsion: It is suggested that I/D polymorphism of the ACE gene may not be associated with development of asthma. The severity of asthma may not be influenced by I/D polymorphism of the ACE gene.

Investigation of the Relationship between Interleukin-4 Promoter Polymorphism and Severity of Patients with Bronchial Asthma / 결핵

BACKGROUND: Interleukin-4 plays an important role in pathogenesis of asthma, especially in developing atopy by means of switching B lymphocytes to produce IgE. It has been shown that there is polymorphism in the Interleukin-4 promoter region, transversion of cytosine to thymine at-598 from translation initiation site of IL-4 gene. There has also been quite a few works to reveal the role of the polymorphism of IL-4 gene in patients with asthma. We performed this investigation to determine the role of the polymorphism in the severity of symptoms of patients with asthma. We also examined the frequency and the type of the polymorphism in asthmatics compared with non-asthmatics as well. METHOD: The subjects enrolled in this study were 49 asthmatics and 33 non-asthmatics. All the asthmatics were classified as mild and moderate to severe by the NHLBI/WHO Workshop. DNA from both asthmatics and non-asthmatics was extracted, then performed ARMS(Amplification Refractory Mutation System) as well as RFLP using BsmF1 restriction enzyme in order to confirm the polymorphism of IL-4 gene. RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the occurrence of polymorphism of the IL-4 promoter sequence between asthm and non-asthma groups(P=0.7). Among those with polymorphisms, the number of C/C type was slightly more than C/T type in both asthmatics and non-asthmatics, 26 vs 21 in asthmatics and 18 vs 15 in non-asthmatics, which was, however, insignificant statistically. No significant relationship between the severity of asthma and the polymorphism was found(P=0.7). CONCLUSION: There was no significant difference between the severity of asthma and the IL-4 promoter polymorphism(P=0.709). Interestingly, the frequency of the polymorphism in both asthmatics as well as non-asthmatics was found to be even higher than that occurred in Caucasians. However, no significant difference in the frequency of the polymorphism was found in both groups.