Premium
Differential expression of thymosin genes in human tumors and in the developing human kidney
Author(s) -
Hall Alan K.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
international journal of cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.475
H-Index - 234
eISSN - 1097-0215
pISSN - 0020-7136
DOI - 10.1002/ijc.2910480507
Subject(s) - thymosin , biology , gene , complementary dna , gene expression , kidney , renal cell carcinoma , microbiology and biotechnology , messenger rna , embryonic stem cell , beta (programming language) , cell culture , cancer research , pathology , biochemistry , genetics , medicine , computer science , programming language
Thymosins β 4 and β 10 are 2 structurally related polypeptides originally defined in the rat immune system. To date, no truly unambiguous functions have been formally ascribed to these small (<4.9 kDa) acidic proteins. Previous research has demonstrated relationships between expression of these genes and cell growth/differentiation. These observations prompted the present study which has used cDNA and synthetic oligonucleotide probes in combination with high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to examine the differential expression of these 2 genes in normal and neoplastic human tissues and in the developing human kidney. Low levels of β 4 and β 10 mRNA species prevailed in normal tissues; in contrast, these gene transcripts were notably more abundant in malignant renal tumors and in the normal human embryonic kidney. These findings show that the thymosin β 4 and β 10 genes are constitutively expressed at higher levels in embryonic/neoplastic as compared to normal/benign tissues and that thymosin in β 10 in particular may be a new molecular marker for renal‐cell carcinoma as well as other malignancies.