Immunohistochemical analysis of cell cycle-related molecules in gastric carcinoma: prognostic significance, correlation with clinicopathological parameters, proliferation and apoptosis.
OBJECTIVE
We aimed to investigate the biological significance of cell cycle regulators in gastric carcinoma.


METHODS
Immunohistochemistry and TUNEL staining were performed on tissue array slides containing 293 gastric carcinoma specimens. The relationship between the protein expression of each of the cell cycle regulators and prognosis, clinicopathological features, proliferation, or apoptosis was evaluated.


RESULTS
The nuclear immunoreactivity for cyclin D1, cyclin E, p21, and p27 was observed in 22, 14, 31 and 27% of cases, respectively. The expression of cyclin D1, p21, or p27 positively correlated with early pTNM stages, tumor cell proliferation (represented by Ki-67 labeling) and good prognosis, whereas it inversely correlated with the lymph node metastasis (p < 0.05). On the other hand, p27 expression inversely correlated with the apoptosis index represented by TUNEL staining (p < 0.001). In addition, the expression of cyclin D1 positively correlated with that of p21 or p27 (p < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results showed that the expression of cyclin D1, p21 and p27, alone or in combination, are early events in gastric tumorigenesis and may serve as a candidate molecular marker for the early gastric carcinoma.
Lee
Kyung-Hee
KH
Department of Anatomy, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Lee
Hee Eun
HE
Cho
Sung Jin
SJ
Cho
Yu Jin
YJ
Lee
Hye Seung
HS
Kim
Ji Hun
JH
Nam
Seon Young
SY
Chang
Mee Soo
MS
Kim
Woo Ho
WH
Lee
Byung Lan
BL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D017209:Apoptosis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*; D002453:Cell Cycle; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002455:Cell Division; D019938:Cyclin D1 / Q000378:metabolism; D019927:Cyclin E / Q000378:metabolism; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21 / Q000378:metabolism; D050760:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27 / Q000378:metabolism; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011379:Prognosis; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C493956:CDKN1A protein, human; D018797:Cell Cycle Proteins; D019927:Cyclin E; D050759:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p21; D019938:Cyclin D1; D050760:Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p27