Cancer-associated fibroblasts are positively correlated with metastatic potential of human gastric cancers.
BACKGROUND
The prognosis of gastric cancer patients is difficult to predict because of defects in establishing the surgical-pathological features. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) have been found to play prominent role in promoting tumor growth, invasion and metastasis. Thus raises the hypothesis that the extent of CAFs prevalence may help to establish the prognosis of gastric cancer patients.


METHODS
Immunochemistry and realtime-PCR experiments were carried out to compare the expression of proteins which are specific markers of CAFs or secreted by CAFs in the tumor and normal tissue specimens. The extent of CAFs' prevalence was graded according to immunochemical staining, and correlation was further analyzed between CAFs' prevalence and other tumor characteristics which may influence the prognosis of gastric cancer patients.


RESULTS
Nearly 80 percent of normal gastric tissues were negative or weak positive for CAFs staining, while more than 60 percent of gastric cancer tissues were moderate or strong positive for CAFs staining. Realtime-PCR results also showed significant elevated expression of FAP, SDF-1 and TGF-beta1 in gastric cancer tissues compared to normal gastric tissues. Further analysis showed that CAFs' prevalence was correlated with tumor size, depth of the tumor, lymph node metastasis, liver metastasis or peritoneum metastasis.


CONCLUSIONS
Reactive cancer associated fibroblasts (CAFs) were frequently accumulated in gastric cancer tissues, and the prevalence of CAFs was correlated with tumor size, depth of the tumor and tumor metastasis, thus give some supports for establishing the prognosis of the gastric cancer patients.
Zhi
Kangkang
K
Department of General Surgery, the Second Military Medical University affiliated Changhai hospital, Shanghai 200433, China.
Shen
Xiaojun
X
Zhang
Hao
H
Bi
Jianwei
J
D000199:Actins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D024042:Collagen Type I / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary*; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010534:Peritoneal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000556:secondary*; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D000071999:S100 Calcium-Binding Protein A4; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D015996:Survival Rate; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D055815:Young Adult
D000199:Actins; D002135:Calcium-Binding Proteins; D024042:Collagen Type I; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D000071999:S100 Calcium-Binding Protein A4; D053773:Transforming Growth Factor beta1; C077591:S100A4 protein, human