Frequent loss of gelsolin expression in non-small cell lung cancers of heavy smokers

Most lung and bladder cancers have been shown to be associated with smoking. We have previously demonstrated the frequent loss of gelsolin expression and its tumor suppressor activity in bladder cancer (M. Tanaka et al., Cancer Res., 55: 3228-3232, 1995). Here, we examined gelsolin expression in 12 cultured non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cell lines. Furthermore, we analyzed gelsolin expression in relation to patients' smoking habits in 88 surgically resected NSCLCs to investigate whether gelsolin could be a molecular target for tobacco-induced carcinogenesis of lung cancer. All 12 NSCLC cell lines showed low-to-undetectable expression of the gelsolin gene, compared to that in normal lung tissue, by Northern blot analysis. On the other hand, Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA did not show any gross rearrangements or deletions of the gene in the NSCLC cell lines. Western blot analysis of gelsolin expression showed low-to-undetectable gelsolin expression in all 12 NSCLC cell lines, compared to normal lung tissue. Immunocytochemical analysis of gelsolin expression in NSCLC cell lines showed results that were consistent with those obtained by Western blot analysis, using normal bronchial epithelial cells as a positive control: two cell lines with lower gelsolin expression by Western blot analysis had reduced but positive cytoplasmic immunostaining of gelsolin, compared with primary normal bronchial epithelial cells, whereas no such immunostaining was observed in two cell lines with much lower or undetectable gelsolin expression by Western blot analysis. Therefore, gelsolin expression was analyzed in surgically resected NSCLCs by immunohistochemistry. Reduced or undetectable gelsolin expression was observed in 48 of 88 (55%) resected NSCLCs. Such altered gelsolin expression significantly correlated with heavy smoking of patients (greater than or equal to 20 pack-years; P = 0.008 by the chi(2) test and P = 0.03 by multivariate logistic regression analysis), whereas there was no significant correlation between gelsolin expression and histological type, pathological tumor-node-metastasis (pTNM) stage, or survival. These findings suggest that the frequent loss of gelsolin expression may be involved in the development of NSCLCs as a potential molecular target of tobacco-induced carcinogenesis.