[The association of expression and gene polymorphism of the thymidylate synthase gene with 5-fluoro-5'-deoxyuridine sensitivity in gastric cancer cell lines].

Thymidylate synthase (TS) is a target enzyme of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and the TS expression level of cancer tissues is a potential predictor of the response to 5-FU-based chemotherapy. The TS gene has a polymorphic tandem-repeat sequence, which is associated with its protein expression. Therefore, the TS polymorphism may also be a predictor of the response to 5-FU-based chemotherapy. In this study, we analyzed the TS genotype, TS protein level, and sensitivity to 5-fluoro-5'-deoxyuridine (5'-dFUrd) in 10 human gastric cancer cell lines. TS genotype was classified into 2R-homozygote (2R/2R, n=3), 3R-homozygote (3R/3R, n=5), and 2R/3R-heterozygote (2R/3R, n=2). The cell lines with 3R/3R showed a significantly higher IC50 value compared to those with 2R/2R or 2R/3R genotype. There was no relationship between TS protein level and 5'-dFUrd sensitivity. However, a statistically significant relationship was revealed between them when the subgroup with the genotypes of 2R/2R or 2R/3R was considered (r=0.815, p<0.05). In this subgroup, the cell lines with higher TS protein showed higher IC50 value for 5'-dFUrd, indicating less sensitivity to 5'-dFUrd. An identical relationship between the TS protein level and IC50 was also observed in the subgroup with 3R/3R genotype, although it did not reach statistical significance (r=0.745, p=0.09). These results suggest that the TS gene polymorphism and TS protein level may be independent predictors for 5-FU-based chemotherapy.