%0 Journal Article
%T Receptor protein tyrosine kinase EphB4 is up-regulated in colon cancer
%A Sally-Anne Stephenson
%A Stefan Slomka
%A Evelyn L Douglas
%A Peter J Hewett
%A Jennifer E Hardingham
%J BMC Molecular Biology
%D 2001
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2199-2-15
%X Quantitative RT-PCR analysis of the expression of the EphB4 gene has shown that its expression is increased in 82% of tumour samples when compared with the matched normal tissue from the same patient. Using immunohistochemistry and Western analysis techniques with an EphB4-specific antibody, we also show that this receptor is expressed in the epithelial cells of the tumour tissue and either not at all, or in only low levels, in the normal tissue.The results presented here supports the emerging idea that Eph receptors play a role in tumour formation and suggests that further elucidation of this signalling pathway may identify useful targets for cancer treatment therapies.Colorectal cancer (CRC), arising from epithelial cells lining the large intestine, is the most commonly occurring internal cancer among Australians. Of all forms of cancer, it has the second highest mortality rate for both men and women, after lung cancer and breast cancer, respectively. Recently in Australia, the screening of all individuals over the age of 50 years for colon cancer has been proposed but although several genes may have good prognostic potential, a reliable genetic test for this disease has not yet been developed [1-3]. Further to this problem, up to 30% of patients undergoing supposed curative resection for early stage disease will relapse and die within 5 years, suggesting that metastatic spread is already underway in these patients.In an effort to identify new markers for colon cancer, we have screened cDNA arrays to identify genes that show marked up-regulation in colon tumour cells when compared with matched normal mucosa. EphB4, a member of the largest known family of receptor protein tyrosine kinases, was identified as a gene that showed consistent up-regulation in the patient tumour samples, when compared with the normal tissue, by array analysis. Eph receptors are involved in many cellular processes including neural development, angiogenesis and vascular network assembly [4-
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2199/2/15