gms | German Medical Science

127. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie

20.04. - 23.04.2010, Berlin

Article

Send article

HERG1 gene expression – a more reliable tumor marker in colorectal tissue than previously established markers

Meeting Abstract

Search Medline for

  • Jürgen H. Dolderer - BG Unfallklinik, Klinik für Plastische-, Hand-, Rekkonstruktive und Verbrennungschirurgie, Tübingen, Germany
  • Horst Schuldes - Nordwest-Hospital, Department of Surgery, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Herrmann Bockhorn - Nordwest-Hospital, Department of Surgery, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Michael Altmannsberger - Nordwest-Hospital, Department of Pathology, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Christopher Lambers - Medical University , Department of Internal Medicine IV, Wien, Austria
  • Detlef von Zabern - University of Heidelberg, Mannheim, Department of Anaesthesiology, Mannheim, Germany
  • Dietger Jonas - J.-W. Goethe-University Hospital, Cellular Research Laboratory, Department of Urology, Center of Surgery, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
  • Herbert Schwegler - Otto-von-Guerike-University, Department of Anatomy, Magdeburg, Germany
  • Rüdiger Linke - Otto-von-Guerike-University, Department of Anatomy, Magdeburg, Germany
  • Ulrich H. Schröder - Leibniz-Institut for Neurobiologie, Project Group Neuropharmacology, Magdeburg, Germany

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Chirurgie. 127. Kongress der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Chirurgie. Berlin, 20.-23.04.2010. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2010. Doc10dgch085

doi: 10.3205/10dgch085, urn:nbn:de:0183-10dgch0853

Published: May 17, 2010

© 2010 Dolderer et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

Text

Introduction: Colorectal carcinomas exhibit a frequent recurrence after curative surgery, which may partially be due to histopathologically inconspicuous minimal residual disease. Reliable markers for tumor cells in colorectal tissue are still missing. Therefore, in this study we compared the predictive value of the putative tumor markers carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), cytokeratin-19 (CK19) and cytokeratin-20 (CK20) to that of a novel marker, the human ether-a-go-go-related gene (HERG1) K+ channel, a suggested regulator of tumor cell proliferation.

Materials and methods: Using RT-PCR we studied HERG, CEA, CK19 and CK20 expression in colorectal carcinomas and non-carcinoma controls. HERG1 immunhistochemistrywas performed in a total of 66 specimens, in colorectal carcinoma (n=23), in matched histopathologically negative samples (n=23) taken near the excision site from the same tumor patients and in healthy control biopsies (n=20). In order to verify the relevance of HERG1 for tumor proliferation we studied the effect of HERG1 inhibition in the Colo-205 colon cancer carcinoma cell line using the MTT-assay.

Results: HERG1 was expressed in all tumor samples regardless of their stage and in adenomas larger than 0.4 cm, but absent in small adenomas, sigmadiverticulitis specimen and healthy histopathologically negative samples, except for one which developed a tumor recurrence. In contrast, CEA, CK19 and CK20 were absent in some tumors. The selective HERG1 inhibitor E-4031 dose-dependently impaired tumor growth in the proliferation assays.

Conclusion: Our data indicate that HERG1, but not CEA, CK19 or CK20, is a highly sensitive and reliable tumor biomarker that may constitute a novel molecular target for tumor treatment.