Expression of some members of the trefoil factor (TFF) and the WNT gene families is regulated together by estrogen. We have cloned and characterized human WNT signaling molecules using bioinformatics, cDNA-library screening and cDNA-PCR to investigate expression profile of WNT signaling molecules in human gastric cancer. Here, we investigated expression profile of TFF1/pS2, TFF2/SP and TFF3/ITF in human gastric cancer. Among 7 gastric cancer cell lines, TFF1 was expressed in OKAJIMA, TMK1, MKN45, and KATO-III, TFF2 in KATO-III, and TFF3 in MKN45 and KATO-III. TFFs were preferentially expressed in diffuse-type gastric cancer cell lines. Expression of TFFs in primary gastric cancer was next investigated. TFF1 was down-regulated in 7 cases out of 12 cases (58.3%) of primary gastric cancer. TFF2 was down-regulated in 10 out of 12 cases (83.3%) of primary gastric cancer. TFF3 was down-regulated in 2 out of 12 cases (16.7%) of primary gastric cancer, and was up-regulated in 5 out of 12 cases (41.7%). TFF1 and TFF2 were frequently down-regulated in primary gastric cancer, while TFF3 was up-regulated in some cases of primary gastric cancer. This is the first report on comprehensive expression analyses on TFFs in gastric cancer.

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