title: Immunohistochemical analysis of Bcl-2, Bax, Bcl-X, and Mcl-1 expression in pancreatic cancers.
abstract: Expression of several members of the Bcl-2 family proteins was investigated by means of both immunohistochemical analysis in 30 invasive ductal adenocarcinomas and 23 intraductal papillary-mucinous tumors (IPMTs) and immunoblot analysis in 6 cancer tissues and 7 pancreatic cancer cell lines. We found that Bcl-2 was expressed in 23%, Bax in 53%, Bcl-X in 90%, and Mcl-1 in 90% of the invasive ductal adenocarcinomas. In intraductal papillary-mucinous adenocarcinomas, the expression rate of Bax was 44% and those of Bcl-XL and Mcl-1 were 88%; these values were higher than those for intraductal papillary-mucinous adenomas. Immunoblot analysis identified Bcl-XL as the predominant form of the Bcl-X protein in both pancreatic cancer tissues and cell lines, and demonstrated that both Bcl-XL and Mcl-1 protein levels were uniformly high in all cell lines. These results suggest that an imbalance between antiapoptosis proteins (such as Bcl-2, Bcl-XL, and Mcl-1) and proapoptotic proteins (such as Bax and Bcl-Xs) is involved in the distinctive biologic features of adenocarcinomas of the pancreas. Furthermore, predominantly high expressions of Bcl-XL and Mcl-1 in intraductal papillary-mucinous adenocarcinomas might be involved in the carcinogenesis in IPMT of the pancreas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery and Surgical Basic Sciences, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Miyamoto
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hosotani
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wada
authors.forename: J U
authors.initials: JU
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Koshiba
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fujimoto
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuji
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Doi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Imamura
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D002288:Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous / Q000737:chemistry; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000737:chemistry; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D064549:Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000473:pathology; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000032:analysis*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein; D051020:bcl-X Protein
chemical_list: C494826:BAX protein, human; C494811:BCL2L1 protein, human; D064549:Myeloid Cell Leukemia Sequence 1 Protein; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D051028:bcl-2-Associated X Protein; D051020:bcl-X Protein