50514

DEC1

CTS9;deleted in esophageal cancer 1;DEC1;deleted in esophageal cancer 1

candidate tumor suppressor CTS9

9q32

protein-coding

The long arm of chromosome 9 is thought to contain one or more putative tumor suppressor genes that are mutated in squamous cell carcinomas. This region shows frequent loss of heterozygosity (LOH) in carcinomas arising in several developmentally related tissues, including the esophagus, head and neck, lung, and urinary bladder. We previously delineated the commonly deleted region in a panel of esophageal squamous cell carcinomas to a approximately 200 kb genomic segment at 9q32. Here we report the isolation of a novel gene, DEC1 (deleted in esophageal cancer 1), from the target region. mutational analysis of this gene by reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction disclosed significantly reduced expression of DEC1 in 8 of 13 (62%) esophageal cancer cell lines and in 16 of 30 (53%) primary squamous cell carcinomas of the esophagus. However, no genetic alteration was detected in any of the cancers examined. Introduction of DEC1 cDNA into 3 cancer cell lines that lacked expression of DEC1 significantly suppressed cell growth, whereas antisense cDNA or the vector DNA alone did not. Given the reduced expression of the DEC1 gene in esophageal cancer, the high frequency of LOH at 9q32 in esophageal carcinomas, and the fact that the DEC1 cDNA can suppress growth of some cancer cells in vitro, we suggest that the DEC1 gene is a candidate tumor suppressor in 9q32. genes Chromosomes cancer 27:169-176, 2000.

The key genes involved in the development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) remain to be elucidated. Previous studies indicate extensive genomic alterations occur on chromosome 9 in ESCC. Using a monochromosome transfer approach, this study provides functional evidence and narrows down the critical region (CR) responsible for chromosome 9 tumor suppressing activity to a 2.4 Mb region mapping to 9q33-q34 between markers D9S1798 and D9S61. Interestingly, a high prevalence of allelic loss in this CR is also observed in primary ESCC tumors by microsatellite typing. Allelic loss is found in 30/34 (88%) tumors and the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) frequency ranges from 67 to 86%. Absent to low expression of a 9q32 candidate tumor suppressor gene (TSG), DEC1 (deleted in esophageal cancer 1), is detected in four Asian ESCC cell lines. Stably expressing DEC1 transfectants provide functional evidence for inhibition of tumor growth in nude mice and DEC1 expression is decreased in tumor segregants arising after long-term selection in vivo. There is 74% LOH in the DEC1 region of ESCC primary tumors. This study provides the first functional evidence for the presence of critical tumor suppressive regions on 9q33-q34. DEC1 is a candidate TSG that may be involved in ESCC development.

Previous studies showed that expression of the novel candidate tumor suppressor gene, DEC1 (Deleted in Esophageal cancer 1), is reduced in esophageal carcinoma and suppresses cancer cell growth in vitro and tumor growth in vivo in nude mice. This study shows that DEC1 gene expression was downregulated in 100% of 16 esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cell lines and 52 and 45%, respectively, of esophageal tumor specimens from Hong Kong and a high-risk ESCC region of Henan, China. Using epitope tagging, the DEC1 protein was localized to both the cytoplasm and nucleus of the cell. In 3D Matrigel culture, no significant difference in colony numbers formed was observed for DEC1 stable transfectants, as compared to vector-alone transfectant controls. However, significantly smaller colony sizes were observed for the DEC1 transfectants. In in vitro cell migration, invasion and soft agar assays of DEC1 transfectants, only the soft agar assay showed statistically significant differences in colony numbers with the vector-alone controls, indicating that DEC1 may be involved in anchorage-independent cell growth. In addition, the global gene expression affected by DEC1 in tumor-suppressive stable transfectants was investigated using cDNA oligonucleotide microarray hybridization. Three candidate genes, TFPI-2, GDF15 and DUSP6, were identified through this approach; they are downregulated in tumor segregants of DEC1 stable transfectants, ESCC cell lines and esophageal tumors and have a potential role in tumor growth and progression. These studies show that DEC1 is involved in esophageal cancer development and help elucidate its functional role in tumor development.

We previously reported definition of a region containing a putative tumor suppressor gene for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma within an approximately 4-cM genomic segment at 9q31-q32. We have investigated this region further using six new microsatellite markers isolated from yeast artificial chromosome clones covering the deleted region and have narrowly defined the commonly deleted region to a segment between two loci, KM9.1 and D9S177. On the basis of the contig map of cosmid and yeast artificial chromosome clones, we estimate the physical size of the region of interest to be about 200 kb. Because the distal 9q region also has been implicated as the site of a tumor suppressor gene(s) related to squamous cell carcinomas of other tissues, our map provides useful information for attempts to identify a common gene for carcinomas of this cell type.