2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Molecular mechanism of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in renal cell carcinomas

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21790365
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Human pathology
Research Institution	Keio University
Principal Investigator	MIKAMI Shuji Keio University, 医学部, 助教 (20338180)
Project Period (FY)	2009 – 2010
Keywords	上皮-間葉転換 / 腎細胞癌 / Snail / 転移 / 浸潤 / 紡錘形細胞癌
Research Abstract	The transcriptional factor Snail has been proposed as an important mediator of epithelial-mesenchymal transition because of its role in down-regulation of E-cadherin and up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Ninety-seven primary RCCs were analyzed for the protein expression of Snail and E-cadherin by immunohistochemistry. The expression level of Snail was significantly higher in high-grade RCCs than in low-grade RCCs. The patients with Snail-high/E-cadherin-low RCCs had poor prognosis. Targeting the Snail expression in 786-O cells with siRNA caused down-regulation of the gene expression of Snail, MMP9, but up-regulated the E-cadherin. Invasion of the cells through Matrigel in vitro was inhibited under this condition. In conclusions, these data suggest that Snail plays an important role in invasion and metastasis, and that silencing the gene may be a potential therapeutic target in RCCs.