G Antigen 8 (GAGE8)

GAGE cancer/testis antigens, including GAGE8, are frequently expressed in many different types of cancer, whereas their expression in normal tissues is limited to the germ cells of the immune-privileged organs, testis and ovary.

By screening a melanoma cell cDNA library with GAGE1 as probe, De Backer et al. (1999) cloned GAGE8.De Backer et al. (1999) showed that expression of GAGE8 was induced by demethylation in sarcoma and melanoma call lines, and by phytohemagglutinin treatment of peripheral blood leukocytes.De Backer et al. (1999) determined that the GAGE8 gene contains 5 exons. The first exon is noncoding, and intron 4 contains a LINE insertion, which disrupts a putative exon comparable to exon 4-prime in the GAGE1 gene.By somatic cell hybrid analysis and FISH, De Backer et al. (1999) mapped the GAGE8 gene to chromosome Xp11.4-p11.2.