The purpose of this report was to identify a novel tri-allelic insertion/deletion (INDEL) polymorphism (rs4135235) involving a poly-T sequence in the promoter region of p21(Waf1/Cip1) gene and to explore its role in gastric cancer (GC).
Our results demonstrate that STAT3, but not STAT5, is involved in GC cell growth and cell cycle progression through regulation of gene expression, such as Bcl-2, p16(ink4a) and p21(waf1/cip1).
Our results suggest that hypermethylation does not contribute to P21(CIP1) and P27(KIP1) silencing in gastric cancer, and that the role of these genes in the gastric tumorigenesis pathways should be studied further in the Pará state population.
We previously showed that ATBF1 expression inversely correlated with the malignant character of gastric cancer and that ATBF1 enhanced the promoter activity of p21Waf1/Cip1.