Amphiregulin messenger RNA is elevated in psoriatic epidermis and gastrointestinal carcinomas.

Amphiregulin (AR) is a heparin-regulated, epidermal growth factor-like growth factor capable of stimulating the proliferation of non-tumorigenic cells while inhibiting cell proliferation in some human tumor cell lines in vitro. In the present study, we have investigated AR mRNA expression in normal, hyperproliferative, and neoplastic human epithelium. Our results demonstrate that, compared with the adjacent uninvolved epithelium, AR mRNA expression is markedly elevated in epidermal biopsies derived from three human psoriatic lesions as well as in biopsies derived from five human colon carcinomas and three human stomach carcinomas. Moreover, analysis of a colon carcinoma by in situ hybridization revealed that AR mRNA is localized to the epithelium.