Background: Genes that are differentially expressed in benign and malignant tissues are important for the establishment of molecular-based diagnosis of carcinomas. Our recent study on the gene expression profile of thyroid carcinomas revealed an increased expression of thymosin beta-10 mRNA.
Methods: To confirm this, we measured the expression levels of thymosin beta-10 mRNA in 84 thyroid benign and malignant thyroid tissues, including five anaplastic carcinomas, by means of real-time quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.
Results: We found an increased expression of thymosin beta-10 mRNA in thyroid carcinomas, especially in anaplastic carcinomas. Expression levels of thymosin beta-10 mRNA relative to thyroglobulin mRNA in anaplastic carcinomas were greatly increased compared with those in differentiated carcinomas.
Conclusion: These results suggest the usefulness of the quantitative measurement of thymosin beta-10 mRNA in molecular-based diagnosis of thyroid anaplastic carcinomas, but not of differentiated carcinomas.