[Measurement of soluble CD44v6 in peripheral blood as assistant diagnosis of invasive pituitary adenomas].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the value of measuring the concentration of soluble CD44 splice variant 6 (sCD44v6) in peripheral blood in patients with invasive and non-invasive pituitary adenomas.


METHODS
The concentrations of sCD44v6 in peripheral blood were measured with ELISA in 68 patients with invasive pituitary adenomas and 100 patients with non-invasive pituitary adenomas.


RESULTS
The serum concentration of sCD44v6 in patients with invasive pituitary adenomas was lower than that in patients with non-invasive pituitary adenomas, while the latter was lower than that in healthy controls. The serum concentrations of sCD44v6 were (44.63 +/- 7.21), (34.53 +/- 6.41), and (26.34 +/- 4.95) ng/ml in patients with invasive microadenoma, macroadenoma, and giant adenoma, and (60.78 +/- 9.61), (57.78 +/- 10.00), and (37.22 +/- 5.17) ng/ml in patients with non-invasive microadenoma, macroadenoma, and giant adenoma, lower than that in the healthy control group (68.73 +/- 6.00) ng/ml. Significant differences were observed among groups (P < 0.005). The concentration of sCD44v6 in peripheral blood decreased as the tumor size increased (P < 0.01), which was particularly significant in invasive pituitary adenomas. The positive rate in the patients with invasive pituitary adenomas reached 89.71%.


CONCLUSIONS
Serum concentration of sCD44v6 in the peripheral blood is inversely correlated with tumor size and its invasive growth, which may provide certain value in the early diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of invasive pituitary macroadenoma and giant adenoma.
Kong
Yan-guo
YG
Department of Neurosurgery, PUMC Hospital, CAMS and PUMC, Beijing 100730, China. kongyg@pumch.ac.cn
Su
Chang-bao
CB
Ren
Zu-yuan
ZY
Wang
Ren-zhi
RZ
Li
Gui-lin
GL
Dou
Wan-chen
WC
Zhang
Bo
B
Tian
Shi-qiang
SQ
D000236:Adenoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D005260:Female; D006023:Glycoproteins / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D010911:Pituitary Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C112697:CD44v6 antigen; D006023:Glycoproteins; D018960:Hyaluronan Receptors