Expression pattern and clinical prognostic relevance of bone morphogenetic protein-2 in human gliomas.
OBJECTIVE
Bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) is normally expressed in the embryo promoting the development of several organs. Aberrant expression of BMP-2 occurs in various tumors. However, a correlation between BMP-2 expression in human gliomas and patients' prognosis has not been reported. To address this question, this study was to investigate the BMP-2 expression pattern in human gliomas and to evaluate its prognostic relevance.


METHODS
We analyzed the expression of the BMP-2 antigen in a series of 98 gliomas of various grade and histology by immunohistochemistry on paraffin-embedded sections. Then, the correlation of BMP-2 expression pattern with clinical-pathological features of patients and its prognostic relevance were determined.


RESULTS
Immunohistochemical analysis with anti-BMP-2 antibody revealed dense and spotty staining in the tumor cells and its expression levels became significantly higher as the gliomas' grade advanced (P < 0.001). The median survival of patients with intensively positive BMP-2 expression was significantly shorter than that with negative expression (318 vs. 1197 days, P < 0.0001). The Kaplan-Meier survival curves showed that the BMP-2 expression was not only a significant predictor of survival in high-grade gliomas (grade IV, P = 0.02), but also in lower-grade gliomas (grades II and III, P < 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that BMP-2 is a highly sensitive marker for gliomas prognosis and suggest that the expression level of BMP-2 may be a potent tool for the clinical prognosis of gliomas patients.
Liu
Ce
C
Department of Neurosurgery, Southwest Hospital, The Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, PR China.
Tian
Gang
G
Tu
Yanyang
Y
Fu
Jianfang
J
Lan
Chuan
C
Wu
Nan
N
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D005910:Glioma / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D055815:Young Adult
D055396:Bone Morphogenetic Protein 2