Expression of E-cadherin and beta-catenin in primary and peritoneal metastatic ovarian carcinoma.
Protein expression levels of E-cadherin and beta-catenin were examined in 39 primary and 10 metastatic ovarian carcinoma to elucidate the role of these molecules in the extension of ovarian carcinoma by immunohistochemistry. Twenty-two of 39 (56%) ovarian carcinomas were preserved type and 17 of 39 (44%) were reduced type of E-cadherin. In contrast, 36 of 39 (92%) ovarian carcinomas were preserved type and 3 of 39 (8%) were reduced type of beta-catenin. E-cadherin expression in well-differentiated carcinoma was higher than that in moderately/poorly-differentiated carcinoma (p<0.05). Interestingly, 6 of 10 (60%) peritoneal metastatic lesions resulted in the reduced expression of E-cadherin compared with primary lesions. In contrast, only 2 of 10 (20%) metastatic lesions showed reduced expression of beta-catenin compared with primary lesions. Mutation of exon 3 of beta-catenin gene was rare (3%, 1/39) in carcinoma. These results suggested that the cell adhesion molecule E-cadherin might play an important role in the formation of peritoneal metastasis. In contrast, beta-catenin is not a good indicator of metastasis in human ovarian carcinoma.
Fujioka
T
T
Department of Pathology, Institute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan. fujioka@idac.tohoku.ac.jp
Takebayashi
Y
Y
Kihana
T
T
Kusanagi
Y
Y
Hamada
K
K
Ochi
H
H
Uchida
T
T
Fukumoto
M
M
Ito
M
M
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics; D015820:Cadherins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005091:Exons; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007438:Introns; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D010534:Peritoneal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology / Q000556:secondary*; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D011379:Prognosis; D017741:Survivors; D015534:Trans-Activators; D051176:beta Catenin
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C495270:CTNNB1 protein, human; D015820:Cadherins; D003598:Cytoskeletal Proteins; D015534:Trans-Activators; D051176:beta Catenin