Down-regulation of Mus81 as a potential marker for the malignancy of gastric cancer.

Background: The Mus81 gene encodes a critical endonuclease involved in DNA repair and tumor suppression. In the present study, the role of Mus81 in gastric cancer was explored.

Materials And Methods: Mus81 expression in 53 cases of gastric cancer and the corresponding normal tissues was determined by quantitative real-time PCR. The correlations between Mus81 down-regulation and the clinicopathological data were also evaluated.

Results: Mus81 expression was significantly lower in gastric cancer tissues than the corresponding normal tissues (p = 0.018) and the down-regulation of Mus81 occurred in 51% (27/53) of the gastric carcinomas. More importantly, Mus81 down-regulation correlated significantly to invasion depth (p = 0.015) and poorly-differentiated type (p = 0.016) of gastric cancer.

Conclusion: Mus81 might be a potential marker for the malignancy of gastric cancer.