Expression of ST7R (ST7-like, ST7L) in normal tissues and cancer

We have recently cloned and characterized ST7R (ST7-like, ST7L), WNT3, WNT3A, WNT5B, WNT6, WNT7B, WNT8A, WNT8B, WNT10A, WNT10B, WNT11, WNT14, WNT14B/WNT15, NKD1, NKD2, ARHU/WRCH1, ARHV/WRCH2, and VANGL1/STB2 using bioinformatics, cDNA-PCR and RACE. ST7R is a paralog of tumor suppressor gene ST7 in the human genome. ST7R gene is clustered with WNT2B gene in human chromo-some 1p13 region, while ST7 gene is clustered with WNT2 gene in human chromosome 7q31 region. Multiple ST7R mRNAs (ST7R1-ST7R4) are transcribed due to alternative splicing. ST7R4 is divergent from ST7R1-ST7R3 in the C-terminal region. Here, we investigated expression of ST7R mRNAs in normal human tissues and human cancer. Northern blot analysis with S7S1 probe corresponding to ST7R1, ST7R2 and ST7R3 isoforms detected 4.2 kb ST7R mRNA in various normal tissues, and also large amounts of 2.2-2.4 kb ST7R mRNAs in testis. Northern blot analysis with S7S4 probe corresponding to ST7R4 isoform detected 2.0 kb ST7R mRNA in testis. Expression of ST7R mRNAs in human cancer was next investigated using cDNA-PCR. Although ST7R mRNAs were almost ubiquitously expressed in 7 gastric cancer cell lines, expression levels of ST7R mRNAs were relatively lower in TMK1 cells. ST7R mRNAs were expressed in most cases of primary gastric cancer, and were up-regulated in 2 out of 10 cases of primary gastric cancer. This is the first report on expression analyses on ST7R.