title: Expression of angiopoietin-like 4 in human gastric cancer: ANGPTL4 promotes venous invasion.
abstract: There is strong evidence that the angiopoietin family is involved in the regulation of tumour progression, cellular growth and differentiation. Recently, it has been reported that angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) in cancer cell promotes the metastatic process by increasing vascular permeability. To elucidate ANGPTL4 expression and its association with clinicopathological factors and prognosis in human gastric adenocarcinomas, we examined 103 cases of surgically-resected human gastric adenocarcinoma by immunohistochemistry. Among 103 cases of adenocarcinoma, 38 cases (36.9%) showed positive staining in the cytoplasm of the carcinoma cells for ANGPTL4. Histologically, papillary and mucinous adenocarcinomas showed relatively high expression of ANGPTL4 (60 and 60%, respectively). The expression of ANGPTL4 was correlated with the depth of tumour invasion (p<0.005), lymph node metastasis (p<0.001), venous invasion (p<0.00005) and TNM stage (p<0.001) in the total carcinoma. In univariate survival analysis, ANGPTL4 expression was not associated with the overall survival. RT-PCR or Western blot analysis showed the expression of mRNA or protein of ANGPTL4 in all four surgically-resected samples and all four cell lines of human gastric adenocarcinoma. ANGPTL4 expression was correlated with several clinicopathological factors, especially venous invasion. These findings suggest that the ANGPTL4 is one of the factors involved in the progression of human gastric cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Nagasaki 852-8523, Japan. toshi-n@nagasaki-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Toshiyuki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakayama
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hirakawa
authors.forename: Kenichiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shibata
authors.forename: Kuniko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagayasu
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Taguchi
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D000075803:Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4; D042682:Angiopoietins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005743:Gastrectomy; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D007564:Japan; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000032:analysis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014680:Veins / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: C474772:ANGPTL4 protein, human; D000075803:Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4; D042682:Angiopoietins; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012333:RNA, Messenger