Expression level of wild-type survivin in gastric cancer is an independent predictor of survival.
OBJECTIVE
Survivin is a novel antiapoptotic gene in which three splicing variants have been recently cloned and characterized. Survivin has been found to be abundantly expressed in a wide variety of human malignancies, whereas it is undetectable in normal adult tissues. We aimed to study the expression of three survivin splicing variants in gastric cancer, and to evaluate the prognostic significance of the expression of survivin variants in gastric cancer.


METHODS
Real time quantitative RT-PCR was performed to analyze the expression of survivin variants in 79 paired tumors and normal gastric mucosa samples at the mRNA level. Proliferative and apoptotic activity was measured using Ki-67 immunohistochemical analysis and the TUNEL method, respectively.


RESULTS
All the cases tested expressed wild-type survivin mRNA, which was not only the dominant transcript, but also a poor prognostic biomarker (P = 0.003). Non-antiapoptostic survivin-2B mRNA was correlated with tumor stage (P = 0.001), histological type (P = 0.004), and depth of tumor invasion (P = 0.041), while survivin-DeltaEx3 mRNA showed a significant association with apoptosis (P = 0.02).


CONCLUSIONS
Wild-type survivin mRNA expression levels are of important prognostic value and significant participation of survivin-2B and survivin-DeltaEx3 is suggested in gastric cancer development.
Department of General Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Dalian Medical University, Liaoning Province, China.
Hua
H
Meng
Cai-De
CD
Lu
Yu-Lei
YL
Sun
De-Jian
DJ
Dai
Sang-Wong
SW
Lee
Nobuhiko
N
Tanigawa
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017209:Apoptosis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics; D002455:Cell Division; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D008297:Male; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000077022:Survivin
C107489:BIRC5 protein, human; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D051034:Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000077022:Survivin