RESUMO
The investigation of molecular mechanisms contributing to cancer progression is the burning problem ofcurrent research. Considerable attention has been given to the study of gene expression in cancer cells. Sphingomyelin synthase 1 gene (SGMS1) is one of the genes whose expression can be altered in cancer. SMS1 enzyme, encoded by this gene, catalyzes the synthesis of sphingomyelin and diacylglycerol from phosphatidylcholine and ceramide. SMS1 may maintain the balance between cell death and survival by regulating the formation of the pro-apoptotic mediator ceramide and anti-apoptotic mediator diacylglycerol. In addition, the changes in sphingomyelin level and sphingomyelin synthase activity have been observed in cancers of many tissues. However the peculiarities of SGMS1 gene transcription have been insufficiently explored. In this work the expression of transcripts of SGMS1 has been investigated by the method of Real Time PCR in matched pairs of samples of human lung and oesophagus cancer and adjacent tissues without pathology. A significant decrease in SMS1 transcripts expression has been found in samples of human lung cancer. At the same time, in the samples of human oesophagus cancer and adjacent tissue, expression of SMS1 transcripts varies insignificantly: it is increased in 7 and decreased in 5 of 15 samples. The obtained results indicate that SGMS1 gene is differently expressed in cancers of different genesis.