Kim Hoon Yub, Park Woong-Yang, Lee Kyu Eun, Park Won Seo, Chung Yoo Seung, Cho Su Jin, Youn Yeo-Kyu
Department of Surgery, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
J Cancer Res Ther. 2010 Oct-Dec;6(4):452-7. doi: 10.4103/0973-1482.77103.
Papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTCs) measuring 1.0 cm or less were separately defined as papillary thyroid microcarcinomas (PTMs) by the World Health Organization, emphasizing on their benign behavior. However, some reported that PTMs may have aggressive behavior, can cause regional, or even distant metastases. But till now, the characteristics of PTMs were only reviewed and described by the clinicopathological parameters, and no analysis of PTM by the gene level is available. We report on the gene expression profiles of PTMs by the oligonucleotide microarrays and the results of comparative analysis with those of PTCs.
The gene expression profiles of 25 pairs of PTMs and their normal thyroid tissue counterparts, and 11 pairs of PTCs and their normal counterparts, were analyzed by Affymetrix Human Genome U133A. Data were analyzed by the SAM and the DAVID 2008 program to detect differentially expressed genes in supervised sample classification.
Two-hundred thirteen statistically significant up-regulated genes and -183 significant down-regulated genes of PTMs compared with their normal counterpart thyroid tissues, which were mainly cell adhesion-related genes and immune response genes, were detected. Two-hundred sixty-one up-regulated and -157 down-regulated genes of PTCs were also detected. In the comparative analyses of gene expression profiles of PTMs and PTCs, no significant difference was found.
PTM should not be considered as the simple occult indolent thyroid cancer, but as the earlier stage of disease which eventually evolves into PTC, because the gene expression profiles of PTMs were not different from those of PTCs.
世界卫生组织将直径1.0厘米及以下的甲状腺乳头状癌（PTC）单独定义为甲状腺微小乳头状癌（PTM），强调其良性行为。然而，一些研究报道PTM可能具有侵袭性，可导致区域甚至远处转移。但迄今为止，PTM的特征仅通过临床病理参数进行回顾和描述，尚无基因水平的分析。我们报告了通过寡核苷酸微阵列检测的PTM基因表达谱以及与PTC的比较分析结果。
使用Affymetrix人类基因组U133A芯片分析25对PTM及其正常甲状腺组织对应物，以及11对PTC及其正常对应物的基因表达谱。通过SAM和DAVID 2008程序分析数据，以检测监督样本分类中差异表达的基因。
与正常甲状腺组织对应物相比，检测到PTM有213个统计学上显著上调的基因和183个显著下调的基因，主要是细胞黏附相关基因和免疫反应基因。还检测到PTC有261个上调基因和157个下调基因。在PTM和PTC基因表达谱的比较分析中，未发现显著差异。
PTM不应被视为简单的隐匿性惰性甲状腺癌，而应被视为最终演变为PTC的疾病早期阶段，因为PTM的基因表达谱与PTC并无差异。
