肿瘤干细胞标记物CD44和EpCAM在胃癌中的表达及意义

Expression and clinicopathologic significance of cancer stem cell markers CD44 and EpCAM in human gastric carcinoma

目的探讨肿瘤干细胞标志物CD44和上皮细胞黏附分子（EpCAM）在胃癌组织中的表达及其临床意义。方法应用高通量的组织芯片技术建立组织芯片，通过免疫组化SP法检测72例胃癌组织和52例正常胃组织中CD44和EpCAM的表达情况，并分析其与胃癌的临床病理特征之间的关系。结果CD44和EpCAM蛋白在正常组织中的阳性率分别为15．4％（8／52）和9．6％（5／52）；而在胃癌组织中的阳性率分别为83．3％（60／72）和66．7％（48／72），与正常组织相比差异均有统计学意义（P〈0．01）。CD44和EpCAM的表达与浸润深度（P〈0．05）、分化程度（P〈0．01）和临床分期（P〈0．01）有关；Pearson相关分析显示，CD44与EpCAM在胃癌中的表达呈正相关（r=0．553，P〈0．01）。结论肿瘤干细胞标记物CD44、EpCAM在胃癌中高表达，且与胃癌恶性生物学行为密切相关。CD44和EpCAM在胃癌的发生发展中具有协同作用，两者联合检测有助于预测肿瘤的生物学行为，对临床治疗有重要指导意义。

Objective To investigate the clinicopathological significances of CD44 and epithelial cell adhesion mole- cule （EpCAM） expression in human gastric carcinoma. Methods High throughput technology of tissue microarray and immunohistochemical SP method was employed to investigate the expression of CD44 and EpCAM proteins in 72 gastric carcinoma specimens and 52 normal gastric tissue spcimens. Immunohistochemistry records were reviewed and the clini- copathological characteristics or outcomes were evaluated. Results The expression rates of CD44 and EpCAM in gastric carcinoma tissue were 83.3 % （60/72） and 66.7 % （48/72）, respectively, which were significantly higher than those in normal gastric tissue （ P 〈 0.01 ） [ the expression rates of CD44 and EpCAM in normal gastric tissue were 15.4% （8/52） and 9.6% （5/52）, respectively] . The expression of CD44 and EpCAM in gastric carcinoma tissue were positively correlated with infiltrative depth （ P 〈 0.05 ）, differentiation degree （ P 〈 0.01 ）, and TNM stage （ P 〈 0. 01 ）. According to the results of Pearson correlation analysis, CD44 and EpCAM expression in gastric carcinoma had a positive correlation （ r = 0. 553,P 〈 0.01 ）. Conclusion CD44 and EpCAM are highly expressed in gastric carcinoma,it is closely related to the clinical pathological features and biological behaviors of gastric cancer. Synergistic effects is observed between CD44 and EpCAM. Hence, joint detection may be useful indicators for the clinical assessment of tumor biological behavior in patients with gastric carcinoma and plays an important guiding role in the clinical treatment.