ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The ectopic expression of receptor tyrosine kinase Ror1 has been reported in patients with hematological malignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Here we report, for the first time, expression of ROR1 gene in both tumor tissues and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from patients with renal cancer (RC). METHODS: In the current study, the expression of ROR1 gene was semi-quantitatively measured in PBMC and tumor tissues from 16 RC patients as well as PBMC from 22 healthy individuals relative to the expression of the housekeeping gene phosphoglucomutase 1 by RT-PCR. RESULTS: Our results showed that ROR1 was expressed at gene level in 81.3 percent of renal tumor tissues (13 out of 16) whereas it was expressed in 94 percent of PBMC from RC patients (15 out of 16). A weak expression of ROR1 was observed in PBMC of 4 out of 22 healthy individual. A significant expression of ROR1 was observed in PBMC from RC patients when compared to that in PBMC from normal healthy individuals (P less than 0.001). The expression of ROR1 in PBMC may reflect a shedding of tumor cells into blood stream. CONCLUSION: We conclude that detection of a high level of ROR1 expression in blood cells might assist in early detection of renal malignancies, providing taking into consideration the clinical symptoms of the disease.
Subject(s)
Biomarkers, Tumor/genetics , Kidney Neoplasms/diagnosis , Kidney Neoplasms/enzymology , Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-like Orphan Receptors/genetics , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Case-Control Studies , Female , Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic , Health , Humans , Kidney Neoplasms/genetics , Male , Middle Aged , Phosphoglucomutase/genetics , Phosphoglucomutase/metabolism , Receptor Tyrosine Kinase-like Orphan Receptors/metabolism , Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain ReactionABSTRACT
Fibromodulin is an extracellular matrix protein normally produced by collagen-rich tissues; the fibromodulin gene has been found to be the most overexpressed gene in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia. In this study, fibromodulin was expressed at the gene level (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction [RT-PCR]) in all patients with B-CLL (n = 75) and in most (5 of 7) patients with mantle cell lymphoma (MCL). No mutations in the fibromodulin gene were detected. Fibromodulin was also detected at the protein level in the cytoplasm of the B-CLL cells and in the supernatant after in vitro cultivation, but not at the cell surface. Fibromodulin was not found in patients with T-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (T-CLL), B-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (B-PLL), T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL), hairy cell leukemia, follicular lymphoma, lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma, multiple myeloma, acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), or chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) or in 36 hematologic cell lines. Normal blood mononuclear cells (T and B lymphocytes, monocytes), tonsil B cells, and granulocytes did not express fibromodulin. Activation (phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate [PMA]/ionomycin) of normal T and B lymphocytes induced weak fibromodulin gene expression, but not to the extent seen in freshly isolated B-CLL cells. The reason for the exclusive ectopic expression of fibromodulin in B-CLL and MCL is unknown. However, its unique protein expression makes it likely that fibromodulin is involved in the pathobiology of B-CLL and MCL.
