title: Expression and significance of angiopoietin-2 in gastric cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the expression and pathological factors of Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) in primary gastric cancers and adjacent normal tissues.
  
  
  METHODS
  The expression of Angiopoietin-2 and VEGF were studied in 72 primary gastric cancers and adjacent normal tissues from the same patients by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and immunohistochemistry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ang-2 was mainly expression in tumor cells. There were significantly difference between expression of Ang-2 in primary gastric cancer and in adjacent normal tissue samples (P=0.003). It was statistically correlation between Ang-2 and VEGF expression in tumors (P=0.0055). With regard to Ang-2 expression in tumors, there were significant difference between early stage and advanced stage (P=0.017), and significant difference between positive vascular involvement and negative vascular involvement (P=0.032). However, there was no significant difference between moderate-poor differential type and high differential type (P=0.908), between positive lymph node metastasis and negative lymph node metastasis (P=0.752), between positive serosal invasion and negative serosal invasion (P=0.764). The cases with expression of Ang-2 were increasing with advanced stage and vascular involvement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results manifested that Angiopoietin-2, coordinated with VEGF, play role in regulating tumor angiogenesis of gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Surgery, the Affiliated Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, Medical College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310016, Zhejiang Province, China. s.xiaodong@sohu.com
authors.forename: Xiao-Dong
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Xing-E
authors.initials: XE
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jin-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Xiu-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Yi-Ping
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Mou
authors.forename: Jun-Da
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D042702:Angiopoietin-2 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D042702:Angiopoietin-2; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A