Evaluation of DPT Metastasis Suppressor Gene Expression in Human Gastric Cancer

Background and Aim: Gastric carcinoma (GC) is one of the most common human cancers. Many genes have been analyzed in an attempt to better understand the process of gastric carcinogenesis, however, the underlying mechanism of gastric carcinogenesis is still poorly understood. Dermatopontin (DPT) is an extracellular matrix protein, which regulates multiple physiological processes. The present study aimed to evaluate DPT gene expression in GC. Materials and Methods: Biopsies of 50 surgically-excised GC tissue specimens and corresponding adjacent normal tissues were examined by real-time PCR. Then, using a bioinformatics analysis we determined DPT gene expression in two different cohorts of GC patients. To determine the effect of DPT expression levels on survival outcome, a Kaplan–Meier analysis was performed. For a comprehensive analysis, DPT gene expression was evaluated in 16 different cancers. Results: RT-PCR demonstrated that DPT gene expression was decreased in gastric cancer tissues, compared to that in the normal stomach tissues. Mean DPT expression value was significantly lower in different stages of GC. Further, survival analysis revealed that the mRNA expression of DPT is positively correlated with overall survival of GC patients. A relationship was found between DPT expression and primary size of tumor. Pan-cancer analysis in 16 tumor types showed that DPT expression was lower in tumor tissue than in the adjacent normal tissue. Conclusion: These findings suggested that the decrease in DPT gene expression in gastric tissue may play an important role in gastric carcinogenesis.