title: [Relationship between ROCK2 expression and clinicopathologic characteristics of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the expression and relationship of Rho-associated protein kinase 2 (ROCK2) and clinical characteristics in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC).
  
  
  METHODS
  Immunohistochemistry was performed to assay the expression of ROCK2 in tumor tissues and adjacent normal epithelium from 118 ESCC patients in tissue microarray. The relationship between ROCK2 level and clinicopathologic profiles such as age, gender, location, smoking, differentiation degree, T stage, lymph node metastasis and TNM stage were analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The ROCK2 expression was up-regulated in 54 of 118 (45.76%) ESCC tissues. The up-regulated expression of ROCK2 was observed in 55.74% (34/61) ESCC tissues of patients under 61 years old. And it was significantly higher than that in 35.09% (20/57) of patients over 61 years old (χ(2) = 5.062, P = 0.024). In addition, the rate of up-regulation of ROCK2 was significantly higher in high-grade differentiation group (58.70%, 27/46) than that in moderate-grade and low-grade differentiation group (37.50%, 27/72) (χ(2) = 5.080, P = 0.024).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The up-regulated expression of ROCK2 is correlated with patient age and differentiation grade of ESCC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Xinjiang Medical University, Urumqi, China.
authors.forename: Waresijiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yibulayin
authors.forename: Zhao-li
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Feng-wei
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: He
mesh_terms: D002294:Carcinoma, Squamous Cell / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D054460:rho-Associated Kinases / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: C515852:ROCK2 protein, human; D054460:rho-Associated Kinases