SPARC(SecretedProteinAcidicandRichinCysteine)蛋白是一种富含半胱氨酸(Cys)的酸性分泌蛋白,参与细胞增殖、迁移、凋亡及肿瘤血管生成等生物学过程。前期研究表明,DNA甲基化在胰腺癌中广泛地存在,其可能是胰腺癌等消化道恶性肿瘤中富含半胱氨酸的酸性分泌蛋白(SPARC)表达下调的机制之一。DNA甲基化通常导致某些抑瘤基因的高甲基化失活,SPARC基因是一种抑瘤基因,甲基化能够使其功能性的失活。而通过抑制DNA甲基化可以恢复SPARC的表达,DNA甲基化有望成为胰腺癌早期诊断的潜在生物学标记物以及治疗的靶点。因此,本文主要就SPARC的DNA甲基化在胰腺癌发生发展中的最新研究进展作一综述。
SPARC (Secreted Protein Acidic and Rich in Cysteine) is a protein, which is involved in diverse biological processes, such as cell proliferation, migration, apoptosis and angiogenesis. Previous studies have shown that DNA methylation widely present in pancreatic cancer, it may be one of the regulatory mechanisms of SPARC downregulated in pancreatic cancer and other gastrointestinal malignancies. SPARC is a tumor suppressor gene, aberrant DNA hypermethylation usually can be able to make it functional inactivation. However, the expression of SPARC can be recovered through inhibition of DNA methylation, DNA methylation is expected to be a potential biological marker for early diagnosis of pancreatic and therapeutic target. Therefore, in this review, we will make a summing up of the latest research progress of DNA methylation of SPARC in pancreatic cancer.