Abstract

RANGEL, Nelson; RONDON, Milena  and  RAMIREZ, Sandra. Evaluation of microphthalmia associated transcription factor (MITF) expression in peripheral blood of a population with malign melanoma and control population and cell lines. Colomb. Med. [online]. 2009, vol.40, n.1, pp.16-24. ISSN 1657-9534.

Background: The incidence of malign melanoma tumours has increased more rapidly than any other type of cancer; this has intensified the search for tools that facilitate early identification of melanoma. Microphthalmia associated transcription factor (MITF) is currently known as being a master melanocyte regulator; we analyse MITF gene expression in peripheral blood from individuals suffering from melanoma, compared to people without any type of cancer and ones cell lines. Materials and methods: Thirty one samples of peripheral blood were used: 19 from patients having melanoma and 12 from people without any cancer. RNA was then extracted from these samples. MITF and housekeeping genes (b2M and GAPDH) expression levels were then quantified by real-time PCR. Five cell lines were also used to determine the MITF expression Results: MITF gene expression could be observed in all individuals, though no statistically significant differences were found among expression levels in the groups studied (p=0.09). Even so, MITF expression in the group of patients suffering from melanoma was much more variable than that observed in the group of cancer-free people. Expression was detected in the cell line AGS (gastric adenocarcinoma), not yet described. Conclusions: MITF gene expression levels were detected in the peripheral blood of both people suffering from melanoma and people without any type of cancer. However, variability in the number of molecules in MITF gene expression was observe in people with melanoma, this suggest the presence of tumour cells in circulation.

Keywords : Melanoma; MITF; qPCR; Circulation tumor cells; Cancer.

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