Expression profile of multiple aquaporins in human gastric carcinoma and its clinical significance.
BACKGROUND
New evidence for involvement of aquaporins (AQPs) in cell migration and proliferation adds AQPs to an expanding list of effectors in tumor biology. But there is few report concerning the expression and role of AQPs in human gastric carcinogenesis so far. The aim of this current study was to investigate the expression profile of AQPs in human gastric carcinoma and its significance.


METHODS
We screened the expression profile of AQP0 approximately AQP12 in gastric adenocarcinoma tissues and corresponding normal mucosa from 89 patients with gastric cancer by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), Western blot analysis and immunochemical assay. The relationship between AQPs expression and clinicopathologic characteristics of patients was evaluated.


RESULTS
Based on RT-PCR of 13 AQPs examined, AQP1, 3, 4, 5 and 11 were expressed in human gastric cancers or normal gastric tissues, and AQP3, 4 and 5 exhibited differential expression between human gastric carcinomas and corresponding normal tissues, which was confirmed by Western blot analyses. Immunohistochemical assay showed that AQP4 protein was expressed mainly in the membrane of parietal cell and chief cell in the normal gastric mucosa, and absent in carcinoma tissues. AQP3 and AQP5 were detected remarkably stronger in the carcinoma tissues than that in normal mucosa by immunofluorescence. AQP3 expression in cases with undifferentiated tumor was more than that in cases with well-differentiated tumor. Both AQP3 and AQP5 expression were associated with lymph node metastasis and lymphovascular invasion in patients.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings of differential expressions of AQPs and their correlation with clinicopathologic characteristics implicated AQPs might play a role in human gastric carcinogenesis.
Shen
Lizong
L
Department of General Surgery, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, 300 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210029, PR China. shenlz@163.com
Zhu
Zhengcai
Z
Huang
Yiming
Y
Shu
Yongqian
Y
Sun
Maocai
M
Xu
Hao
H
Zhang
Guoqiang
G
Guo
Renhua
R
Wei
Wei
W
Wu
Wenxi
W
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D051400:Aquaporin 3 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D051401:Aquaporin 4 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D051402:Aquaporin 5 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020346:Aquaporins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D015153:Blotting, Western; D005260:Female; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000378:metabolism; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
C496027:AQP3 protein, human; C496030:AQP4 protein, human; C496036:AQP5 protein, human; D051401:Aquaporin 4; D051402:Aquaporin 5; D020346:Aquaporins; D051400:Aquaporin 3