Expression of homeobox gene (HOXB7) in pancreatic adenocarcinomas

Abstract

Homeobox genes are master development control genes that act at the top of genetic hierarchies regulating aspects of morphogenesis and cell differentiation in animals. They are regulatory genes encoding nuclear proteins that act as transcription factors. Currently, the role of these genes in development and tumor progression has been extensively studied. Several findings have confirmed the role of deregulated expression of some HOX family members in several tumors, however, in pancreatic tumors no study evaluated the effect of HOXB7 gene. In a preliminary analysis conducted by our group, we observed that the mRNA of the gene HOXB7 were hyper-expressed in a strain of human pancreatic carcinoma (MiaPaCa-2). This study aims to: (1) identify the pattern of gene expression of HOXB7 in pancreatic tumors and normal tissue (2) identify possible gene amplification in tumor tissues (3) track possible mutations that may be crucial for the gene disruption (4 ) off the HOXB7 gene in the lineage of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma to try to assess their function using the phenomenon of RNA interference