Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α-induced protein 8 (TIPE) is a recently identified protein that is considered to be associated with various malignancies, including esophageal, breast and pancreatic cancer; however, the importance of TIPE in gastric cancer (GC) remains unknown. Decoy receptor 3 (DcR3) is a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily that is expressed in digestive system neoplasms. The expression of DcR3 is regulated by the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/MAPK kinase/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was performed to detect the expression of TIPE, ERK and DcR3 in the pathological and tumor-adjacent normal gastric tissues of 30 patients that demonstrated stage III gastric adenocarcinoma. The expression and distribution of the TIPE protein was examined using immunohistochemistry, and the clinical significance and expression levels of DcR3 and ERK1/2 were evaluated. The expression of TIPE, ERK1/2 and DcR3 in the tumor tissues of GC was significantly increased compared with paracarcinoma tissues (P<0.05). In addition, TIPE expression positively correlated with DcR3 and ERK1 levels (r=0.538 and r=0.462, respectively; P<0.05). There was no statistical difference between tumor tissues from patients with varying age, gender, differentiation or lymph node metastasis (P>0.05). TIPE may be vital in the progression of GC. TIPE may be associated with the expression of DcR3 and ERK1/2, which may be involved in the cell apoptosis of GC. The present study elucidates the potential function of TIPE as a novel marker and therapeutic target for GC.
Keywords: GC; decoy receptor 3; extracellular signal-regulated protein kinases 1 and 2; tumor necrosis factor-α-induced protein 8.