Down‐regulation of protein kinase C‐α detected in human colorectal cancer

Abstract

The down-regulation of protein kinase C (PKC) was examined by Western blot procedure on about 30 tissue samples derived from human colorectal cancer and the corresponding normal mucosa. PKC-alpha down-regulation was detected in 60% of the cancer tissues compared with the respective normal mucosa and was observed in a higher frequency with the tissues under more advanced cancer stages. However, the frequencies of the down-regulation of PKC-delta and PKC-zeta were lower than that of PKC-alpha. These results suggest that a decreased level of PKC-alpha may affect the cell growth and tumor promotion in colorectal tissue.