title: Expression of maspin is associated with the intestinal type of gastric adenocarcinoma.
abstract: 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.
authors: Laboratory of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Hallym University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea.
authors: Seong Man
authors: SM
authors: Kim
authors: Seong Jin
authors: SJ
authors: Cho
authors: Woo Young
authors: WY
authors: Jang
authors: Duck Hwan
authors: DH
authors: Kim
authors: Hyung Sik
authors: HS
authors: Shin
authors: Myoung Kuk
authors: MK
authors: Jang
authors: Hak Yang
authors: HY
authors: Kim
authors: Eun Sook
authors: ES
authors: Nam