Differential expression of ZFX gene in gastric cancer.

Gastric cancer accounts for 8% of the total cancer cases and 10% of total cancer deaths worldwide. In Iran, gastric cancer is the leading cause of national cancer-related mortality. Most human cancers show substantial heterogeneity. The cancer stem cell (CSC) hypothesis has been proposed to reconcile this heterogeneity. ZFX encodes a member of the krueppel C2H2-type zinc-finger protein family that is required as a transcriptional regulator for self-renewal of stem cells. A total of 30 paired tissue gastric samples were examined for ZFX gene expression by quantitative real-time RT-PCR. Although the relative expression of the gene was significantly high in 47% of the examined tumour tissues, its expression was low in the others (53%). There was a statistically significant association between the ZFX gene expression and different tumour types and grades. This is the first report that shows ZFX was differentially expressed in gastric cancer. Of note, it was overexpressed in diffused-type and grade III gastric tumoural tissues. Due to this, ZFX may have the potential to be used as a target for therapeutic interventions.