Gene expression profiling of nasopharyngeal carcinoma reveals the abnormally regulated Wnt signaling pathway

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a particularly common malignant disease in areas of south China and Southeast Asia. To characterize the gene expression profiling of NPC, we detected the gene expression profiles in 22 NPC and 10 nontumor nasopharyngeal epithelial tissues by complementary DNA microarray. We identified 503 genes that were significantly (P <.001) differentially regulated between NPC and nontumor nasopharyngeal epithelial tissues. The differentially expressed genes are involved in many signaling pathways, such as the Writ, transforming growth factor beta, and mitogen-activated protein kinase signaling pathways. The aberrant expression of the Writ signaling pathway components, such as wingless-type MMTV integration site family, member 5A, Frizzled homolog 7, casein kinase 11 beta,/beta-catenin, CREB-binding protein, and Dishevelled-associated activator of motphogenesis 2 was validated on the NPC tissue microarrays. The data suggest that the Writ signaling pathway may be abnormally regulated in NPC, which provides insight into the molecular mechanisms of NPC. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.