Abstract
BACKGROUND: Gastric adenocarcinoma is known to be the fourth most common cancer type and the second cause of cancer-related deaths. Movement and invasion of cancer cells is one of the major characteristics of the cancer phenotype that various types of network regulate this. Expression levels of slingshot diphosphatase 1 (SSH1) gene has been modulated in this pathway. SSH1 acts as a dephosphorylation and activator of cofilin that this regulating and activating by SSH1 can play a major role in the mobility and migration of the cell. The aim of this study was to compare the expression level of SSH1 genes between tumor and corresponding adjacent non tumor gastric tissues and healthy tissue of gastric adenocarcinoma. METHODS: In this study, mRNA of 40 gastric adenocarcinoma and corresponding adjacent non tumor gastric tissues and 15 healthy biopsy samples was extracted, then after cDNA synthesis, real-time polymerase chain reaction was performed to measure gene expression. RESULTS: According to REST analysis, the relative expression of SSH1 was significantly increased in gastric cancer tissues compared to the corresponding adjacent non tumor gastric tissue samples and normal tissue. Nevertheless, the result revealed no substantial correlation between the expression levels of SSH1 with clinical features. The biomarker index for SSH1 was obtained as 0.89. CONCLUSIONS: The results obtained from investigating SSH1 expression are indicative of significant changes in the expression of this gene in gastric adenocarcinoma. This gene can also be used as a biomarker for gastric cancer.