Mina53 (mina) was identified as a gene, which is directly induced by the oncogene c-myc. Elevated expression of Mina53
protein was found in >80% of
colon cancer and
esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Patients with high expression of Mina53 had shorter survival, suggesting the prognostic usefulness of Mina53. We studied Mina53 expression in
lymphoma subtypes to examine its diagnostic significance and its possible role in
lymphoma-genesis. Surgical cases of 28
lymphoma and 4 non-neoplastic tissues were stained immunochemically using anti-Mina53
monoclonal antibody. Mina53 expression correlated well with c-Myc expression in
lymphoma, suggesting that c-Myc is a controlling factor for mina53 expression also in
lymphomas. Although the expression of Mina53 as well as c-Myc was less frequent in
lymphoma compared with those of colon and ESCC, increased expression of Mina53 was found in Burkitt-like
lymphoma (1/1),
Hodgkin's lymphoma (3/5),
diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) (5/13),
lymphomas with a transition from follicular to DLBCL (1/2), with none in follicular (0/4) and
T cell lymphoma (0/3). Analyses of the data suggested that Mina53 was frequently expressed in aggressive types of
B cell lymphoma. To get more information about the expression of Mina53 in DLBCL, which most frequently occurs among
lymphomas, we analyzed the expression of Mina53 in another 21 DLBCL specimens, which were in more advanced stages than those described above. The expression level of Mina53 correlated to the international prognostic index (IPI) values with statistical significance (r=0.477, P=0.0275). Notably, in this group, Mina53 expression did not correlate with c-Myc expression, suggesting that other factor(s) besides c-Myc largely affect the expression of Mina53 in advanced DLBCL. These results suggest that although Mina53 expression is not prominent in
lymphoma in general, it may be related to
tumor progression of
B cell lymphoma.