胃癌E-钙黏蛋白表达与临床病理学的关系

E-cadherin expression correlates with clinicopathological features in gastric carcinoma

目的:细胞黏附功能下降在上皮型恶性肿瘤发展过程中起关键作用,E-钙黏蛋白是重要的黏附分子.我们检测E-钙黏蛋白在胃癌及癌前的表达,并分析其与胃癌临床病理学的关系.方法:采用免疫组织化学方法检测163例胃癌、44例异型增生、25例肠化生、28例萎缩性胃炎石蜡标本的E-钙黏蛋白表达水平.结果:萎缩性胃炎、肠化生以及对照组胃黏膜均保留正常的细胞膜染色.E-钙黏蛋白在胃癌异常表达率为46%,异型增生为36%,萎缩性胃炎和肠化生E-钙黏蛋白表达正常.BorrmannⅢ型和BorrmannⅣ型E-钙黏蛋白异常表达率显著高于BorrmannⅠ型和BorrmannⅡ型(P<0.01).E-钙黏蛋白在管状腺癌、黏液腺癌及印戒细胞癌的异常表达率分别为44%、54%和73%,显著高于乳头状腺癌(19%)(P<0.05).E-钙黏蛋白在肠型胃癌和弥漫型胃癌的异常表达率分别为33%(36/108)和73%(29/40),两者之间具有显著性差异(P<0.01).E-钙黏蛋白表达与胃癌浸润深度、淋巴结转移和远处转移无关(分别P>0.05).结论:胃癌存在E-钙黏蛋白表达异常,E-钙黏蛋白表达异常与胃癌组织学发生密切相关,E-Cad表达异常可能是胃癌发生、发展过程中的早期事件.

AIM: E-cadherin plays an important role in the maintenanceof cell-cell adhesion. The role of altered cell adhesion iscritical for the development of epithelial cancers. The aimof this study was to assess the expression of E-cadherin ingastric carcinoma and dysplasia and to determine its rela-tionship with tumor clinicopathological features.METHODS: Immunohistochemical staining of E-cadherin wasperformed using 163 cases of gastric carcinoma, 44 gastricdysplasia and gastric biopsy specimens from 25 intestinalmetaplasia, and 28 atrophic gastritis.RESULTS:Normal membranous staining was observed inintestinal metaplasia, atrophic gastritis and control biopsyspecimens for E-cadherin. 46% of tumors and 36% of gas-tric dysplasia stained abnormally for E-cadherin. AberrantE-cadherin expression occurred more significantly inBorrmann Ⅲ/Ⅳ than in Borrmann Ⅰ/Ⅱ type (P <0.01).A significantly higher proportion of signet-ring (73%), mu-cinous (54%) and tubular adenocarcinomas (44%) showedaberrant E-cadherin expression compared with that of pap-illary adenocarcinomas (19%) (P <0.05). Moreover, abnor-mal E-cadherin staining occurred more frequently in diffuse(73%, 29/40) than intestinal (33%, 36/108) types of thetumors (P <0.01). No association with tumors with invasivedepth, lymph node metastasis and distance metastasis wasfound (P >0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Aberrant expression of the E-cadherin oc-curs frequently in gastric carcinoma and contributes tohistogenesis. Abnormal expression of the E-cadherin in gas-tric dysplasia may be an early event in the tumorigenesis.