The BH3-only member Noxa may not be involved in the development of unselected colorectal cancer

• Noxa is an BH3-only member of the Bcl-2 family, upregulated by p53 as a response to DNA damage. Mutations in the BH3-only region of other BH3-only members lead to an inactive protein. We have investigated the mRNA expression of Noxa with real-time PCR in 94 unselected colorectal adenocarcinomas and the corresponding normal mucosa. Further, we searched for mutations in the Noxa gene using single stranded conformation polymorphism and DNA sequencing. The mRNA expression of Noxa was weak in 9% and strong in 2% of the tumours and decreased in 9% and increased in 16% of the tumours compared to the normal mucosa, but these changes did not have any clinical or pathological significance. We did not find any mutations in the gene. Thus, our observations suggest that the variations in Noxa gene may not be of particular importance in the development of unselected colorectal cancer.

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