Increased expression of Gab2, a scaffolding adaptor of the tyrosine kinase signalling, in gastric carcinomas

AIMS: Mounting evidence indicates that alterations of protein kinase signalling pathways play crucial roles in the pathogenesis of cancers. Gab2 (Grb2-associated binding protein 2), a member of the family of Gab scaffolding adaptors, transmits and amplifies the signals from receptor tyrosine kinases. A recent study demonstrated that Gab protein was over-expressed in breast cancers, and the over-expressed Gab2 increased proliferation and invasion of the cells, indicating that Gab2 is an oncogenic protein. However, the roles of Gab in other cancers are largely unknown. METHODS: In this study, to see whether Gab2 expression could be a characteristic of gastric cancers, we analysed the expression of Gab2 in 60 gastric adenocarcinomas by immunohistochemistry using a tissue microarray. RESULTS: In the normal gastric mucosal epithelial cells, Gab2 protein was expressed in parietal and zymogen cells, but not in other mucosal epithelial cells. In the cancer cells, Gab2 expression was detected in 40 (67%) of the 60 gastric adenocarcinomas. The Gab2 expression was observed in 12 (60%) of the 20 early gastric carcinomas and 28 (70%) of the 40 advanced gastric carcinomas. There was no significant association of Gab2 expression with clinocopathological characteristics, including invasion, metastasis and stage. CONCLUSION: Our data indicate that Gab2 over-expression is a feature not only of breast cancers, but also of gastric cancers. Increased expression of Gab2 in malignant gastric cells compared with normal epithelial cells suggests that Gab2 expression may play a role in gastric cancer development.