Quantitative expression of the homeobox and integrin genes in human gastric carcinoma.

The homeobox (HOX) genes are a large family of regulator genes involved in the control of developmental processes and cell differentiation. The HOX genes encode transcription factors, and an increasing number of studies have shown that these genes may be implicated in the growth and the progression of many types of tumours. The present study investigated the expression of the HOX and integrin genes and their relationships in gastric carcinoma. We analyzed the RNA expression of 13 HOX genes from HOXA, C and D clusters and alphaV, alpha5 and alpha8 integrin genes in 24 gastric cancer samples by quantitative real-time PCR. The results showed that the HOXA2 gene and the alpha8 integrin gene had a lower expression in tumour samples than in normal gastric mucosas. The comparison between the HOX and integrin genes showed that HOXA2 and alphaV integrin expression presented the same trend in 83% of the samples. Moreover, in cancer samples that expressed the HOXD11 gene, the expression of alphaV integrin was lower with respect to normal mucosas. The different roles of HOX and integrin genes in gastric carcinoma remain to be fully elucidated. These findings suggest that the HOX genes may play a critical role in the genesis, maintenance and diffusion of gastric carcinoma.