8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine in colorectal adenocarcinoma--is it a result of oxidative stress?

Background: 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) is one of the most abundant oxidatively modified lesions in DNA and is a marker of the oxidative stress. 8-OHdG is a mutagenic lesion and it can mispair with adenine, causing G:C→T: A transversion. Our task was to determine the 8-OHdG level in patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma directly in tumor tissues and corresponding normal mucosa.

Material/methods: Samples of tumor tissues and corresponding normal mucosa of 47 patients undergoing surgery for colorectal cancer were analyzed. DNA was isolated from both tumor and normal tissues. Then, DNA was hydrolyzed to nucleotides using nuclease P1 and alkaline phosphatase. The 8-OHdG and 2'-dG (2'-deoxyguanosine) were determined in hydrolysates by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical (EC) and UV detector.

Results: The levels of 8-OHdG in colorectal adenocarcinoma tissues were higher than in corresponding normal mucosa. No significant differences were shown in 8-OHdG levels in the cancerous and cancer-free tissues between age and sex and stages A/B and C/D of Duke's classification.

Conclusions: 8-OHdG reflects the local oxidative stress in colon adenocarcinoma tissue together with ageing processes, but not the intensity of tumorigenesis itself. Because of many factors that could influence the oxidative modification of DNA bases, its role as a diagnostic and/or prognostic factor in colon adenocarcinoma seems to be limited.