1. National institute of genetic engineering and biotechnology 5. National Institute of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology
Abstract
Introduction
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer-related death. lung cancers are generally divided into two major types: small cell lung cancer and non-small cell lung cancer. previous studies demonstrated a link between the changes of cytokine expression level and onset of several disorders. tumor necrosis factors (tnfs) are a family of secretory proteins that play role in many physiological and pathological functions, such as apoptosis, cell proliferation, differentiation, inflammatory reactions and systemic necrosis of host defense against bacterial and viral infections. due to the diverse effects of cytokines, this study aimed to examine changes in expression levels of tnfα gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of nsclc patients.
Methods
The peripheral blood mononuclear cells were isolated from the whole blood of 30 nsclc patients and 30 normal controls by ficoll-hypaque gradients method. then, after extracting rna, the cdna was synthesized. finally real-time pcr method was performed using specific primer pairs for tnfα gene and β-actin as an internal control.
Results
Data from this experiment shows that mrna relative expression of tnfα gene significantly decreased by 7-folds in patients with non-small cell lung cancer compared to control subjects (p<0.0001).
Conclusion
This study suggests that the reduction of tnfα expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients compared to the control subjects might take part in the development of non-small cell lung cancer. low levels of tnfα expression could be an independent diagnostic indicator of nsclc. targeting tnfα might be a promising prognostic tool by assessment of the clinical stages of nsclc.
