Effect of EGF on Bax, Bcl-2 and Fas expression in ulcerous disease and N87 cell line

To evaluate the effect of epithelial growth factor (EGF) in primary culture of ulcer patients and N87 cell line on expressions of apoptotic genes.

Ulcer patients who attended Gastroenterology Clinic of Mersin University Medical Faculty were included in this study. Three different doses of EGF were applied to the primary culture of biopsy samples from ulcer patients and gastric cancer cell-line (ATCC-NCI-N87) . The expression levels of Bax, Bcl-2 and Fas genes were measured with quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR).

ΔΔCT analysis with qRT-PCR revealed no significant change in gene expression of Bax, Bcl-2 or Fas within the ulcer, normal tissue and gastric cancer. No significant change was determined between Bax and Bcl-2 gene expression levels and applied EGF doses when groups were compared for each EGF dose. On the other hand, when 50 ng/µl of EGF was administered, Fas mRNA expression level was significantly lower in the gastric cancer cell line compared to patients with ulcer and normal gastroduodenal tissue (p<0.05).

In this study which was done with a restricted patient group, our results revealed that apoptosis induced by Fas expression in gastroduodenal suppressing carcinogenesis process plays an active role in gaining anti-apoptotic properties of cells (Tab. 4, Fig. 2, Ref. 27).