Elevated serum level of IL-23 correlates with expression of VEGF in human colorectal carcinoma.
OBJECTIVE
Interleukin-23 (IL-23) has a role in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) as a condition of higher risk of colorectal carcinogenesis. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is overexpressed in IBD and colorectal carcinoma. Therefore, we aimed at uncovering the relationship between serum level of IL-23 and expression of VEGF in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients and to establish the relationship between VEGF and p53 and serum levels of IL-23, as well as its possible role in carcinogenesis of colorectal carcinomas.


METHODS
Levels of IL-23 from serum samples of patients with colorectal carcinoma (n = 40) and healthy control samples (n = 37) were examined for IL-23-Ab using an ELISA assay. We also determined the expression of VEGF and p53 by immunohistochemistry in 59 cases of CRC.


RESULTS
We found significantly higher serum levels of IL-23 in patients with CRC compared to control subjects (IL-23; mean 189.46 pg/mL vs. mean 34.77 pg/mL, p = 0.033). We also detected higher serum levels of IL-23 in patients with overexpressed VEGF (p = 0.028). Our results also showed that concomitant expression of VEGF and increased serum levels of IL-23 are in positive correlation with histological grade 2 (p <0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Our data indicate that serum IL-23 levels are significantly elevated in CRC vs. control patients and are strongly associated with overexpression of VEGF, thus they may play an important role in carcinogenesis of CRC.
Ljujic
Biljana
B
Center for Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia. bljujic74@gmail.com
Radosavljevic
Gordana
G
Jovanovic
Ivan
I
Pavlovic
Sladjana
S
Zdravkovic
Nemanja
N
Milovanovic
Marija
M
Acimovic
Ljubisa
L
Knezevic
Milan
M
Bankovic
Dragic
D
Zdravkovic
Dusica
D
Arsenijevic
Nebojsa
N
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015212:Inflammatory Bowel Diseases / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism; D053759:Interleukin-23 / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D050796:STAT3 Transcription Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D055771:Serbia; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000378:metabolism; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000378:metabolism*
D053759:Interleukin-23; D050796:STAT3 Transcription Factor; C494086:STAT3 protein, human; C495901:TP53 protein, human; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53; C467484:VEGFA protein, human; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A