Hassan S, Kinoshita Y, Kawanami C, Kishi K, Matsushima Y, Ohashi A, Funasaka Y, Okada A, Maekawa T, He-Yao W, Chiba T
Department of Medicine, Kobe University School of Medicine, Japan.
Dig Dis Sci. 1998 Jan;43(1):8-14. doi: 10.1023/a:1018851415704.
We examined 13 human gastric carcinoma cell lines for the expression of both c-kit and stem cell factor (SCF). Expression of mRNAs was detected by both Northern blot analysis and reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), and expression of translated proteins was detected by western blotting. Using RT-PCR we confirmed the expression of c-kit in five (ECC12, TMK1, MKN7, GCIY, and HGC27) cell lines. Northern blot analysis showed coexpression of both c-kit and SCF in ECC12 and expression of SCF in five other (MKN74, MKN1 OKAJIMA, KATOIII, and TMK1) cell lines. SCF stimulated both tyrosine phosphorylation of c-kit and growth of ECC12, whereas it did not stimulate those of GCIY. The sizes of c-kit transcript and protein in GCIY were slightly smaller than those of the reported ones, suggesting the presence of a biologically inactive truncated form of c-kit in GCIY. The present study suggests that c-kit/SCF system might play an important role in the carcinogenesis and tumor growth of ECC12 and that the truncated form of c-kit in GCIY might not be associated with malignant transformation.
