An Association Study on Genetic Polymorphisms of Rab37 Gene with the Risk of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in a Chinese Han Population

Background: Rab37 encodes a Rab GTPase which regulates the vesicular transport of exocytosis. But the different findings in two types of cancers made its roles in oncology more confused. In this study, a clinical research on genetic polymorphisms was performed to evaluate the association between Rab37 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: The mRNA expression was tested by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in four ESCC cell lines. A case-control study including 212 ESCC patients and 213 cancer-free controls was genotyped by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism. The Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium test, association analysis and haplotype analysis were performed with SPSS and SHEsis software respectively. Results: Rab37 mRNA could be specifically detected in two ESCC cell lines, EC109 and EC9706, but not in KYS150 and KYS450. The allele, genotype and haplotype frequencies of rs9904078G>A, rs2034310T>C and rs5018106T>C, located in Rab37, did not significantly differ between the patients and the controls. No association between the polymorphisms and the TNM stages of patients was found. Conclusions: Rab37 mRNA was specifically expressed in some ESCC cell lines but its genetic polymorphisms were not associated with ESCC.