title: Expression of angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) in human colorectal cancer: ANGPTL4 promotes venous invasion and distant metastasis.
abstract: There is strong evidence that the angiopoietin family is involved in the regulation of tumour progression. Recently, it has been reported that angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4) expression in cancer cells promotes the metastatic process by increasing vascular permeability. The present study was conducted to examine ANGPTL4 expression and its association with clinicopathological factors and prognosis in human colorectal cancers. We examined 144 cases of surgically-resected human colorectal adenocarcinomas by immunohistochemistry, RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. Also, overall survival was investigated. Among 144 cases of adenocarcinoma, 95 cases (66.0%) showed positive staining in the cytoplasm of the carcinoma cells for ANGPTL4. Histologically, well, moderately, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma or mucinous carcinoma showed 55.2, 79.3, 61.5 or 44.4% expression of ANGPTL4, respectively. The expression of ANGPTL4 was correlated with the depth of tumour invasion (p<0.0005), Vienna classification (category 3-5)(p<0.00005), venous invasion (p<0.0005) and Duke's classification (p<0.005). However, ANGPTL4 expression was not correlated with overall survival. However, all patients (100%) with distant metastasis showed immunopositivity for ANGPTL4. The mRNA and the protein expression of ANGPTL4 were shown in four resected samples and cultured cell lines by RT-PCR or western blot analysis. These findings suggest that ANGPTL4 is one of the factors involved in the progression of human colorectal cancer, especially venous invasion and distant metastasis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, 1-12-4 Sakamoto, 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: Arifa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nazneen
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* / Q000556:secondary; D002288:Adenocarcinoma, Mucinous / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000556:secondary; D000075803:Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4; D042682:Angiopoietins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002465:Cell Movement; D015179:Colorectal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D018450:Disease Progression; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009361:Neoplasm Invasiveness; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured
chemical_list: C474772:ANGPTL4 protein, human; D000075803:Angiopoietin-Like Protein 4; D042682:Angiopoietins; D012333:RNA, Messenger