Expression of Syk gene and the methylation of its promoter in cervical carcinoma / 中华全科医师杂志

ABSTRACT

Reverse transcription-PCR and methylation-specific PCR (MSP) were used to determine the expression levels of Syk gene and the methylation status of its promoter in tissue samples from 60 patients with cervical cancer, 50 patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), and 20 normal controls. We also analyzed the association of the methylation status and expression levels of Syk gene with linicopathological features of patients. The expression rates of Syk gene in 20 normal cervical tissue samples and 18 CIN Ⅰ samples were both 100% ; those of CIN Ⅱ- Ⅲ and cervical carcinoma were 56% (18/32)and 35% (21/60) respectively. Among cervical carcinoma patients, the expression of Syk mRNA was detected in one out of 13 cases with lymph node metastasis (1/13) and in 20 out of 47 cases with no lymph node metastasis (43%). The methylation of Syk gene in promoter region was detected in 34 out of 60 cases of cervical carcinoma (57%) ; while there was no methylation in CIN cases. In 13 cases with lymph node metastasis, 11 were found to have the methylation of Syk gene. The methylation rate of Syk promoter in cervical carcinoma was higher than that of CIN tissue( x~2 = 7. 13, P ＜0. 01 ). The methylation status of Syk gene was correlated with the lymph node metastasis ( P＜ 0. 05 ), but not with other clinicopathological parameters ( P ＞ 0. 05). There was a significant correlation between methylation status and expression level of Syk gene ( P ＜ 0. 05 ). The hypermethylation leads to silencing of the Syk gene in human cervicalcarcinoma. Syk hypermethylation may be associated with oncngenesis, metastasis of cervical carcinoma.