Kuroki T, Tomioka T, Tajima Y, Inoue K, Ikematsu Y, Ichinose K, Furui J, Kanematsu T
Department of Surgery II, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Sakamoto, Japan.
Br J Cancer. 1999 Sep;81(2):350-3. doi: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6690699.
The prognosis of patients with pancreatic carcinoma remains very poor. To improve the therapeutic results, the early detection of this cancer is needed. The present study was performed to detect the pancreas-specific gene, chymotrypsinogen, in the peripheral blood from patients with pancreatic carcinoma by using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in order to evaluate the clinical significance of this gene. Ten patients with pancreatic carcinoma, two with acute pancreatitis, three with chronic pancreatitis and ten control subjects were examined for the presence of chymotrypsinogen using RT-PCR techniques in the peripheral blood. To confirm that the chymotrypsinogen gene was expressed in a pancreas-specific manner, the expression of chymotrypsinogen in various types of human adult tissue was evaluated by RT-PCR. The specific band of the chymotrypsinogen gene was detected in the pancreas. Serial dilution studies demonstrated the chymotrypsinogen gene to be detected at a concentration of one pancreatic cell per 10(6) peripheral blood cells. Seven out of the ten (70%) patients with pancreatic carcinoma were found to be positive based on the RT-PCR findings. In contrast, no pancreas-specific gene was detected in the peripheral blood of any patients with acute pancreatitis, chronic pancreatitis or the control subjects. Our observations show that the detection of the pancreatic specific gene, chymotrypsinogen, is therefore useful as a genetic diagnostic marker in pancreatic carcinoma.
胰腺癌患者的预后仍然非常差。为了提高治疗效果，需要早期检测这种癌症。本研究通过逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测胰腺癌患者外周血中的胰腺特异性基因胰凝乳蛋白酶原，以评估该基因的临床意义。使用RT-PCR技术检测了10例胰腺癌患者、2例急性胰腺炎患者、3例慢性胰腺炎患者和10例对照者外周血中胰凝乳蛋白酶原的存在情况。为了证实胰凝乳蛋白酶原基因以胰腺特异性方式表达，通过RT-PCR评估了胰凝乳蛋白酶原在各种类型成人组织中的表达。在胰腺中检测到了胰凝乳蛋白酶原基因的特异性条带。系列稀释研究表明，每10(6)个外周血细胞中含1个胰腺细胞的浓度时就能检测到胰凝乳蛋白酶原基因。根据RT-PCR结果，10例胰腺癌患者中有7例（70%）呈阳性。相比之下，急性胰腺炎患者、慢性胰腺炎患者或对照者的外周血中均未检测到胰腺特异性基因。我们的观察结果表明，因此检测胰腺特异性基因胰凝乳蛋白酶原作为胰腺癌的基因诊断标志物是有用的。
