The homeobox (HOX) genes are a large family of regulator genes involved in the control of developmental processes and cell differentiation. The HOX genes encode
transcription factors, and an increasing number of studies have shown that these genes may be implicated in the growth and the progression of many types of tumours. The present study investigated the expression of the HOX and
integrin genes and their relationships in gastric
carcinoma. We analyzed the
RNA expression of 13 HOX genes from HOXA, C and D clusters and alphaV, alpha5 and alpha8
integrin genes in 24
gastric cancer samples by quantitative real-time PCR. The results showed that the HOXA2 gene and the alpha8
integrin gene had a lower expression in tumour samples than in normal gastric mucosas. The comparison between the HOX and
integrin genes showed that HOXA2 and
alphaV integrin expression presented the same trend in 83% of the samples. Moreover, in
cancer samples that expressed the HOXD11 gene, the expression of
alphaV integrin was lower with respect to normal mucosas. The different roles of HOX and
integrin genes in gastric
carcinoma remain to be fully elucidated. These findings suggest that the HOX genes may play a critical role in the genesis, maintenance and diffusion of gastric
carcinoma.