Differential expression of mRNAs in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity

Background. Malignant transformation is the result of various genetic changes and therefore the isolation and identification of genes that are expressed in malignant but not in normal cells or vice versa is of great importance. Differential display is a recently developed method to identify differentially expressed genes on an mRNA level. Methods. The mRNA of normal mucosal keratinocytes and of carcinoma cells of the floor of the mouth was extracted. Then a differential display-reverse transcriptase-PCR was performed and differentially expressed gene fragments of the carcinoma cells were subsequently cloned and sequenced. Results. A 345 bp fragment from the squamous cell carcinoma cells of the floor of the mouth was isolated and sequenced. A Genbank database search gave only a low homology with known human genes. Conclusions. This gene or gene-fragment-expressed in floor-of-the-mouth squamous cell carcinoma cells and not in keratinocytes may help to improve diagnosis and therapy of this cancer entity and is the first for this tumor entity-defined gene transcript.