Correlation between protein expression of PTEN in human pancreatic cancer and the proliferation, infiltration, metastasis and prognosis

Abstract

In order to investigate the correlation between protein expression of PTEN and the proliferation, infiltration, metastasis and prognosis in pancreatic cancer, immunohistochemical SP method was used to examine the protein expression of PTEN, PCNA, MVD, MMP-2, MMP-9 and TUNEL method to detect the levels of apoptosis of pancreatic cells in 41 pancreatic head cancers from regional pancreatectomy (RP) and 10 normal pancreatic tissues. The results showed that among 41 cases of pancreatic cancers, the positive staining of PTNE (39.02 %) was significantly weaker than that in normal pancreatic tissues (P<0.05). The levels of PCNA labeling index (LI), apoptotic index (AI), microvessel density (MVD), MMP-2 LI and MMP-9 LI were decreased gradually with the increase of the expression intensity of PTEN, and there was a significant difference in the above parameters among the patients having different expression levels of PTEN (P<0.01 or P<0.05). There was a negative correlation between the expression of PTEN and PCNA LI, MVD, MMP-2 LI, MMP-9 LI, and a positive correlation between AI and the expression of PTEN. The expression intensity of PTEN was correlated with the postoperative survival of the patients with pancreatic cancer (x²=22.3400, P<0.0001, RR=2.030). It was suggested that the expression levels of PTEN protein were closely related with proliferation, infiltration and metastasis in human pancreatic cancer, and the expression of PTEN protein was one of the prognostic factors for pancreatic cancer following RP.

Keywords

pancreatic cancer / PTEN / proliferation / infiltration / metastasis / prognosis

References

[1] YamadaK. M., ArakiM.. Tumor suppressor PTEN: modulator of cell signaling, growth, migration and apoptosis. J Cell Sci, 2001, 114: 2375-2382

[2] KuroseK., ZhouX. P., ArakiT., et al.. Frequent loss of PTEN expression is linked to elevated phosphorylated Akt levels, but not associated with p27 and cyclin D1 expression, in primary epithelial ovarian carcinomas. Am J Pathol, 2001, 158: 2097-2106

[3] ChenW. G., ChenX. J., YuanX. H., et al.. Expression of PTEN gene and PTEN gene mutation in human glinma. J Qilu Oncol (Chinese), 2003, 10(10): 1033-1035

[4] XuY. Q., WangC. Y., TaoJ., et al.. Expression of PTEN protein and clinical significance in pancreatic cancer. Chin J Exp Surg (Chinese), 2003, 7(20): 588-589

[5] WeiH. B., WangJ. F., ChenG. H.. Relation between expression of proliferating cell nuclear antigen and prognosis of colorectal cacer. Chin J Gastrointest Surg (Chinese), 2001, 4(2): 114-116

[6] MarianiA., SeboT. J., KatzmannJ. A., et al.. Pretreatment assessment of prognostic indicators in endometrial cancer. Am J Obstet Gynecol, 2000, 182(6): 1535-1544

[7] LeiQ. Y., WangL. Y., DaiZ. Y., et al.. The relationship between PTEN expression and anoikis in human lung carcinnoma cell lines. Acta Biochimica Et Biophysica Sinica, 2002, 34(4): 462-468

[8] StauntonM. J., GaffneyE. F.. Tumor type is a determinant of susceptibility to apoptosis. Am J Clin Pathol, 1995, 103(3): 300-307

[9] ChiM. M., HuangH., ShiG. S.. The correlation between tumor angiogenesis and lymph node metastasis in pancreatic carcinoma. Chin Clin Med (Chinese), 2003, 10(4): 552-553

[10] Wild-bodeC., WellerM., WickW., et al.. Molecular determinants of glioma cell migration and invasion. J Neurosurg, 2001, 94: 978-984