Expression of maspin is associated with the intestinal type of gastric adenocarcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Maspin is known as a tumor suppressor gene, but its significance has been questioned in various human cancers. The aim of this study was to investigate the expression pattern of Maspin in human gastric adenocarcinomas and its possible correlation with clinicopathological findings.


METHODS
The expression of Maspin mRNA was measured by nested RT-PCR using 60 frozen adenocarcinomas of the stomach and 31 noncancerous tissues from the proximal resection margin. Immunohistochemical study for Maspin protein expression was carried out using 62 paraffin-embedded tissues, composed of both cancer and noncancerous tissues.


RESULTS
Maspin mRNA expression was detected in 80.0% (48 of 60) of the gastric adenocarcinomas, but in only 22.6% (7 of 31) of the normal gastric mucosa (p<0.001). The positive rate of Maspin protein expression was higher in the adenocarcinomas than the normal tissues (62.9% vs. 27.4%, p<0.05). In addition, the intestinal type of tumors showed significantly higher expression levels compared to the diffuse type of tumors (81.5% vs. 48.6%, p<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that Maspin is frequently expressed in human gastric cancers, and its expression might be associated with tumorigenesis of the intestinal type of gastric cancer.
Kim
Seong Man
SM
Laboratory of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hallym University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
Cho
Seong Jin
SJ
Jang
Woo Young
WY
Kim
Duck Hwan
DH
Shin
Hyung Sik
HS
Jang
Myoung Kuk
MK
Kim
Hak Yang
HY
Nam
Eun Sook
ES