Studies Of Metastasis Associated 1 In Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

MTAl (Metastasis-associated 1) protein is a protein complex with histone deacetylase activity. It plays an important role in histone deacetylation, alteration of chromatin structure and transcriptional control. Expression of the MTAl has previously been found to be associated with progression to the metastatic state in various cancers. We constructed three tissue arrayers which contain 360 tissue cores from 84 cases of NSCLC and matched normal tissues. The expression levels of MTA1,PCNA were examined by immunohistochemistry. Using three narrow spaced microsatellite markers (D14S62,D14S51,D14S1007),40 primary NSCLC specimens and matched normal tissues were analyzed for LOH at MTAl locus. The mutation of MTAl gene was examined by PCR-SSCP and DNA sequencing. The expression level of MTA1 protein is related to the lymph node metastasis in NSCLC, which would become a signal for predicting lymph node metastasis and prognosis in NSCLC. The expression of MTAl protein is not related to the expression of PCNA protein. LOH of D14S62 in MTAl locus may abrogate the functions of MTAl, and it may impede the process of metastasis of NSCLC. Mutation are not the important reason responsible for the change of normal functions of MTAl.