Association Analysis of CD44 Polymorphisms and Gastric Cancer Prognosis

CD44 is an important cell adhesion molecule playing a role in cancer, cell growth, invasion,proliferation and metastasis. CD44 and its activation ligands including Hyaluronan andOsteopontin (OPN) by their interactions have a signaling network for processes such astumorigenesis, growth regulation, survival, differentiation and motility of tumor cells.Moreover, the evidence collected in recent years strongly suggests that CD44 is a marker ofgastric cancer stem cells. CD44 protein over-expression is associated with poor prognosis ofgastric cancer. Previous studies have shown that CD44 gene polymorphisms could affect thesurvival of human cancers. We tested the hypothesis that polymorphisms involved in CD44signaling pathway may predict clinical outcomes in patients with gastric cancer. DNA wasextracted from the blood of 150 healthy individuals and from the paraffin block of tumor tissueof 150 patients admitted to Omid and Imam Reza (AS) hospitals. The two polymorphismswere studied by RFLP-PCR and sequencing techniques. Results: there was a strongsignificant correlation between single nucleotide polymorphisms of CD44 gene, rs187116and rs7116432, and tumors recurrence and overall survival (p <0.0001). It was proved thatthere was a significant relationship between tumor recurrence and overall survival and atleast one allele G for the polymorphism rs187116 and at least one allele A for thepolymorphism rs7116432. These results provide primary evidence for the relationshipbetween CD44 gene polymorphisms and predicting clinical outcomes in patients with gastriccancer. This could help identify patients with gastric cancer who have a high risk of tumorrecurrence.

کلیدواژه ها:

Cancer ، Gastric Cancer ، CD44 Gene ، Single Nucleotide Polymorphism ، RFLPPCR