Elevated expression levels of COX-2, IL-8 and VEGF in colon adenocarcinoma

There is growing evidence of a connection between inflammation and tumor development and NF-κB is an important transcription factor in the inflammation pathway. Genetic approaches have proven the role of NF-κB responsive genes in tumorigenesis. The NF-κB responsive genes products such as IL-8, VEGF and COX-2 are the key components of angiogenesis. MMP-2 and MMP-9 are playing important roles in the disruption of the extracellular matrix that may contribute to the metastasis of tumor cells. This study aimed to investigate gene expression levels of COX-2, IL-8, VEGF, MMP-2 and MMP-9 in colon tumors. A total of 34 fresh colon carcinoma specimens and paired normal adjacent tissues (NAT) were collected during the surgery and RNA isolations were carried out from specimens. Synthesis of cDNA was carried out from these RNAs with oligo dT18 primers. The transcribed cDNA was used for PCR amplification reactions for the investigated genes with β-actin being the internal reference via the semi-quantitative RT-PCR method. A statistically significant difference was observed for COX-2, IL-8 and VEGF which were all upregulated in colon tumors compared with adjacent normal tissues (p<0.05). However, MMP-2 and MMP-9 expression levels did not change between tumor and normal tissues (p>0.05). Upregulated expression levels of COX-2, IL-8 and VEGF might occur in the early stages of tumorigenesis and detection of these mRNA levels may be beneficial for early diagnosis and management of colon tumors.