Genomic imprinting of MEST in nonsmall-cell lung cancer.

Objective To study the imprinting status and expression level of Mesoderm-specific transcript/Paternally expressed gene 1(MEST)in the development of nonsmall-cell lung cancer(NSCLC).Methods The imprinting status and expression level of MEST was studied among 32 NSCLC patients by using PCR and RFLP.Results 11 of 32 patients(34.4%)studied were informative for MEST.LOI of MEST was noted in 81.8%(9 of 11)of informative cases,among which 6 cases were low grade,undeveloped tumors.Monoallelic expression (except one case ) was maintained in the matched normal tissues examined.Conclusion The findings indicated that LOI of MEST was involved in the development of NSCLC.Meanwhile,11 informative samples of MEST,the average expression of MEST in lung cancer tissue was 1.5 times of the MEST in adjacent tissue,with significant difference.