Análisis del gen FUT 2 y el carácter secretor en pacientes con tumores urogenitales

Abstract

The mechanisms of aberrant expression of blood-group antigens are not clear in all cases. The FUT2 gene has a significant polymorphism with typical ethnic specificity. The aim of this work was to investigate the polymorphism of the FUT2 gene and secretor status by using biochemical and molecular biological methods in patients with urogenital tumours. We studied 104 subjects. Half of them had urogenital tumours, while the other half were the healthy control group. We determined the secretor status in saliva with the haemagglutination inhibition technique using monoclonal antibodies anti-A, anti-B and lectin ulex europeaus. We also investigated the Lewis phenotypes of fresh blood samples by a haemagglutination method. We analyzed the FUT 2 polymorphism by allele specific oligonucleotide–polymerase chain reaction (ASO-PCR) with specific primers for the G428 allele and the wild type allele of FUT2 gene. We found higher intensity of oral disease in the non-secretor group (OR = 3.44). In contrast with the healthy population, 51% of the patients with potential malignant urogenital lesions and cancerous lesions were non-secretors (Le a+ b-). We observed a marginal association between the secretor status and these lesions. In conclusion, the presence of urogenital tumors, in which the non-secretor status predominates, appears to be an associated risk marker for the development for oral cancer.