Enhancer of the Rudimentary Gene Homologue (ERH) Expression Pattern in Sporadic Human Breast Cancer and Normal Breast Tissue

Overview

Journal BMC Cancer

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Oncology

Date 2008 May 27

PMID 18500978

Citations 13

Authors

Menelaos Zafrakas

Inge Losen

Ruth Knuchel

Edgar Dahl

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The human gene ERH (Enhancer of the Rudimentary gene Homologue) has previously been identified by in silico analysis of four million ESTs as a gene differentially expressed in breast cancer. The biological function of ERH protein has not been fully elucidated, however functions in cell cycle progression, pyrimidine metabolism a possible interaction with p21(Cip1/Waf1) via the Ciz1 zinc finger protein have been suggested. The aim of the present study was a systematic characterization of ERH expression in human breast cancer in order to evaluate possible clinical applications of this molecule.

Methods: The expression pattern of ERH was analyzed using multiple tissue northern blots (MTN) on a panel of 16 normal human tissues and two sets of malignant/normal breast and ovarian tissue samples. ERH expression was further analyzed in breast cancer and normal breast tissues and in tumorigenic as well as non-tumorigenic breast cancer cell lines, using quantitative RT-PCR and non-radioisotopic in situ hybridization (ISH).

Results: Among normal human tissues, ERH expression was most abundant in testis, heart, ovary, prostate, and liver. In the two MTN sets of malignant/normal breast and ovarian tissue,ERH was clearly more abundantly expressed in all tumours than in normal tissue samples. Quantitative RT-PCR analyses showed that ERH expression was significantly more abundant in tumorigenic than in non-tumorigenic breast cancer cell lines (4.5-fold; p = 0.05, two-tailed Mann-Whitney U-test); the same trend was noted in a set of 25 primary invasive breast cancers and 16 normal breast tissue samples (2.5-fold; p = 0.1). These findings were further confirmed by non-radioisotopic ISH in human breast cancer and normal breast tissue.

Conclusion: ERH expression is clearly up-regulated in malignant as compared with benign breast cells both in primary human breast cancer and in cell models of breast cancer. Since similar results were obtained for ovarian cancer, ERH overexpression may be implicated in the initiation and/or progression of certain human malignancies. Further studies on large breast cancer tissue cohorts should determine whether ERH could function as a prognostic factor or even a drug target in the treatment of human breast cancer.

Citing Articles

Thirty Years with ERH: An mRNA Splicing and Mitosis Factor Only or Rather a Novel Genome Integrity Protector?.

Kozlowski P Cells. 2023; 12(20).

PMID: 37887293 PMC: 10605862. DOI: 10.3390/cells12202449.

Sphingomyelin Phodiesterase Acid-Like 3A Promotes Hepatocellular Carcinoma Growth Through the Enhancer of Rudimentary Homolog.

Zhang Y, Chen W, Cheng X, Wang F, Gao C, Song F Front Oncol. 2022; 12:852765.

PMID: 35686107 PMC: 9171240. DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.852765.

ERH Gene and Its Role in Cancer Cells.

Pang K, Li M, Hao L, Shi Z, Feng H, Chen B Front Oncol. 2022; 12:900496.

PMID: 35677162 PMC: 9169799. DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2022.900496.

ERH overexpression is associated with decreased cell migration and invasion and a good prognosis in gastric cancer.

Park J, Park M, Park S, Lee Y, Hong S, Jung E Transl Cancer Res. 2022; 9(9):5281-5291.

PMID: 35117894 PMC: 8797358. DOI: 10.21037/tcr-20-1498.

The Clinical Significance and Potential Molecular Mechanism of in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma.

Chen S, Zhou H, Zhang H, He R, Huang Z, Dang Y Front Genet. 2021; 11:583085.

PMID: 33552118 PMC: 7863988. DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2020.583085.

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