Wnt gene expression in polyposis and colorectal cancer

Background. Transcript dosage may influence transcriptome. To elucidate the role of altered gene expression in colorectal polyposis we analyzed APC gene expression. Methods. Patients with familial and sporadic polyps were enrolled following inclusion (age≥18 years) and exclusion (inflammatory bowel diseases) criteria. Donors with no family history of cancer were recruited as controls. We planned to recruit 20 FAP cases, 50 cases of sporadic polyps, 50 cases of colorectal cancer, 50 healthy controls. Results We analyzed APC expression in colon tumour tissues and adjacent mucosa from 20 patients with FAP, 20 cases with sporadic polyps, and in normal colonic mucosa from 20 healthy controls. qRT-PCR results showed a reduced expression in colon tumour tissues (0.13 2−ΔCT) as compared to the adiacent mucosa (0.34 2−ΔCT). The APC expression in adiacent colonic mucosa was higher also compared to healthy controls colonic mucosa. The differences in APC expression between colon tumour tissues and adiacent mucosa in familial and sporadic cases, were statistically significant in familial group (p=0.0054). We also correlated APC expression with age. In patients the expression levels tend to decrease more rapidly with age (R2=0.473). Instead in control group there is a constant APC expression trend in life. Correlation with sex showed that the APC reduced expression is more evident in men than female (0.11 vs 0.22 2-ΔcT). Conclusions. This study showed that the APC gene is lower expressed in colon tumor tissue compared to the adjacent mucosa but more expressed in adjacent mucosa compared to mucosa of control subjects. It seems restore cellular homeostasis of human colonic epithelium.