Semi-quantitative gene expression studies of Mmiβ and Skip Involved in Endometrial Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

Skip gene encodes a protein which plays a very vital role in a number of metabolic pathways. It is very significant in the glucose metabolism where it regulates the signalling of the insulin pathway. But the full molecular details of the pathways regulated by Skip encoded protein are not known. It is speculated that Skip gene expression is altered in case of endometrial adenocarcinoma (EAC). Mmiβ gene encodes for a protein called Myosin-1c which acts an actin-based molecular motor in the cells. It has been studied that this gene down-regulates during endometrial adenocarcinoma and colorectal cancers. In this study the expression analysis of these two was carried out using multiplex PCR. An endogenous control was used for this PCR. ACTB gene served as the endogenous control because of it being a house keeping gene. It thus shows a universal expression in all cells. Thus in this study the gene expression of Skip and Mmiβ genes was comparatively analyzed with ACTB gene. The results that came out of this study showed an over-expression of Skip gene and down-regulation of Mmiβ gene with respect to ACTB gene in cancer cell lines as was indicated by the previous studies with these genes. Expression of both genes i.e., Skip and Mmiβ was statistically compared between normal and cancerous cell lines and was found statistically significant at a value of P.<