BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate gene expression profiles in unaffected colon mucosa and polyp tissue from patients with unifocal colon polyp to investigate the potential mucosa impairment in normal-appearing colon mucosa from these patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Colon polyp patients were prospectively recruited. We obtained colon biopsies from the normal-appearing sites and polyp tissue through colonoscopy. Gene expression analysis was performed using microarrays. Gene ontology and clustering were evaluated by bioinformatics.

RESULTS: We detected a total of 711 genes (274 up-regulated and 437 down-regulated) in polyp tissue and 256 genes (170 up-regulated and 86 down-regulated) in normal-appearing colon mucosa, with at least a 3-fold of change compared to healthy controls. Heatmapping of the gene expression showed similar gene alteration patterns between unaffected colon mucosa and polyp tissue. Gene ontology analyses confirmed the overlapped molecular functions and pathways of altered gene expression between unaffected colon mucosa and polyp tissue from patients with unifocal colon polyp. The most significantly altered genes in normal-appearing tissues in polyp patients include immune response, external side of plasma membrane, nucleus, and cellular response to zinc ion.

CONCLUSIONS: Significant gene expression alterations exist in unaffected colon mucosa from patients with unifocal colon polyp. Unaffected colon mucosa and polyp tissue share great similarity and overlapping of altered gene expression profiles, indicating the potential possibility of recurrence of colon polyps due to underlying molecular abnormalities of colon mucosa in these patients.

Keywords: Colon - metabolism, Colonic Polyps - genetics, Gene Expression Profiling, Intestinal Mucosa - metabolism, Prospective Studies