title: Serum level of the periostin, a homologue of an insect cell adhesion molecule, in thymoma patients.
abstract: Periostin protein shares structural and sequence homology with fasciclin I, which is an insect adhesion molecule. Periostin has a typical signal peptide at the N-terminal end suggesting it is a secreted protein. Recently, we developed a novel sandwich chemiluminescence assay to determine serum concentrations of periostin. We investigated the serum periostin level in thymoma patients, and attempted to determine the correlation between serum periostin level and clinicopathological factors of thymoma patients who had undergone surgery between January 1994 and July 1996. Serum periostin levels were not significantly different between the thymoma patients (1264.4+/-122.9 ng/ml) and the normal control (962.0+/-118.6 ng/ml) (P=0.0877). There was no relationship between serum periostin level and age, gender or pathological subtype. However the serum periostin level of stage IV patients (1497.0+/-285.8 ng/ml) was significantly higher than normal control (P=0.0460). These data suggest that serum periostin level may indicate tumor invasion and progression of thymoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery II, Nagoya City University Medical School, 1 Kawasumi, Mizuho-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya 467-8601, Japan. hisasaki@med.nagoya-cu.ac.jp
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dai
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Auclair
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaji
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fukai
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kiriyama
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yamakawa
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fujii
authors.forename: L B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000097:blood*; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D008875:Middle Aged; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D012737:Sex Factors; D013945:Thymoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D013953:Thymus Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery; D015854:Up-Regulation
chemical_list: D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; C512835:POSTN protein, human