The Significance Of The Expression Of MAL Gene In Colorectal Cancer

MAL gene is a candidate tumor suppressor gene that maps to chromosome2q11.1thatcodes for a novel hydrophobic protein involved in membrane trafficking processes.Objeetive: To detect MAL in colorectal cancer and adjacent normal tissues.Analysisthe expression of MAL in different stages,different pathological types,different degreeof differentiation of colorectal cancer tissues.Explore related clinical significance of theexpression of MAL gene in colorectal cancer differentiation,stage and metastasis.Methods:The tumor and their adjacent normal tissue(more than5cm from thetumor)were gained from30cases of colorectal carcinoma specimens which werecollected from surgical resection.30cases of colorectal cancer as the experimentalgroup and their adjacent normal tissue(more than5cm from the tumor)as a controlgroup,the expression of MAL between the two groups was analyzed.Each group of totalRNA was extracted,the expressions of MAL gene of experimented group and confondgroup was detected by two-step RT-PCR method.The semi-quantative value of cancertissue and confound tissues was measured by video imaging analysis method.Immunohistochemistry(two-step method) was performed to detect the MAL proteinexpression. SPSS16.0for windows software using statistical analysis,count data ratecomparison between samples using Χ~2test and precision of the probabilitymethod;numerical variables were tested by t-test; correlation analysis using Spearmancorrelation analysis.The differences more considered significant when P value more lessthan0.05.Results:1.The expression of MAL mRNA in colorectol carcinoma tissues is lower thanthat in adjacent normal tissues (P<0.05).MAL gene mRNA transcription in colorectolcarcinoma had statistical significance in different TNM staging and lymph nodemetastasis respectively(P<0.05).There were no statistical significance inage,gender,tumor site, tumor differentiation,and pathological type(P>0.05).2. The Positive rates of MAL Protein expression in colorectol carcinoma and that intheir adjacent normal tissues were20%and66.7%，the MAL protein expression incolorectol carcinoma tissues is lower than the level in their adjacent normaltissues(P<0.05). MAL protein expression in colorectol carcinoma also had statisticalsignificance in different TNM staging and lymph node metastasisrespectively(P<0.05).There were no statistical significance in age,gender,tumor site, tumor differentiation,and pathological type(P>0.05).3. The MAL mRNA transcript expression had a positive correlation with proteinexpression.Conclusion:1. Both the MAL protein and MAL mRNA expression in colorectol carcinoma tissuesare lower than the level in their adjacent normal tissues.MAL gene acts as one of thecharacteristics of molecular biology in the process of malignant transformation ofcolorectol carcinoma.2. The mRNA transcript of MAL gene is positively correlated with its eorrespondingprotein expression in colorctol cancer，indicating that the activation of MAL gene is notonly play an important role in the mRNA transcription level，but also in the proteinlevel.3. The correlations between expression of MAL gene and pathlogical parameters showsthat the activation of MAL gene is likely to be an important event in invasion andmatastasis of colorectol cancer.4. The strategy that MAL gene as a gene therapeutic approach will probably become akind of mean of treatment in colorectol cancer.