Abstract
A novel transmembrane-glycoprotein, referred to as UKW, was identified by expression profiling of a metastatic versus a non-metastatic pancreatic carcinoma cell line (S2-007 and S2-028). UKW is strongly expressed only in the metastatic cell line. The corresponding cDNA encodes for a protein of 374 amino acids. UKW is located on chromosome 11q24.1, a locus which is frequently amplified in pancreatic cancer. Bioinformatic analysis revealed that UKW corresponds to a putative transmembrane-glycoprotein composed of an extracellular domain of 215 aa containing two C2-type Ig folds, a transmembrane region of 23 aa and a highly acidic cytoplasmic region of 117 aa. Sequence alignment revealed homology with human, murine and zebrafish coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor of 35%, 33% and 36% and colon-related A33 antigen of 32%, respectively. Murine adipose-specific protein 5 (Asp-5), however, exhibited the closest homology (93%), suggesting that UKW represents the human orthologue of Asp-5. Multiple tissue expression array analysis revealed UKW expression in gastrointestinal tissues, brain, aorta and uterus and absence in most other human tissues. In a panel of invasive and noninvasive mammary carcinoma cell lines, relative overexpression of UKW was observed in the invasive cell lines. In addition, increased expression of UKW mRNA was found in pancreatic adenocarcinoma compared to tissues derived from patients with chronic pancreatitis and normal pancreatic tissue.
Footnotes
- Received March 29, 2004.
- Accepted May 21, 2004.
- Copyright© 2004 International Institute of Anticaner Research (Dr. John G. Delinassios), All rights reserved