Increased expression of hLRH-1 in human gastric cancer and its implication in tumorigenesis

Altered signaling pathways or deregulated transcription factors represent an important category of molecular events leading to aberrant gene regulation in gastric cancer, among which the role of WNT/β-catenin pathway remains unclear. LRH-1 is a critical transcription factor in controlling cell proliferation via crosstalk with the β-catenin signaling pathway. In order to gain a knowledge of the expression of hLRH-1v1 and hLRH-1 in gastric cancer, a Q-PCR analysis was carried out. Our results showed that in about 50 and 47.6% of 42 tested patients with gastric cancer, the mRNA expression of hLRH-1v1 and hLRH-1 was significantly upregulated, as compared with self-paired normal control, respectively. Besides, overexpression of hLRH-1 was shown to promote the proliferation of gastric adenocarcinoma cell SGC-7901 via induction of cyclin E1. Taken together, our present study demonstrated for the first time the increased expression of hLRH-1v1 and hLRH-1 in human gastric cancer, an alteration which may implicate in tumorigenesis.