Insulin-like growth factors in endometrioid adenocarcinoma: correlation with clinico-pathological features and estrogen receptor expression.
BACKGROUND
Endometrial carcinoma is a common malignancy of female genital tract. Insulin-like growth factor is known to elicit estrogen-induced mitogenic activity and anti-apoptotic effect in endometrial tissues.


METHODS
The retrospective study investigated the expression of insulin-like growth factors, estrogen receptors and their associations in endometrioid adenocarcinoma (EAC) from 80 EAC patients in immunohistochemistry, and 58 EAC patients and 42 control patients in quantitative RT-PCR. The Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze their correlations with clinic-pathological parameters.


RESULTS
Our results showed that insulin-like growth factor-1 and insulin-like growth factor-2 mRNA levels were higher in tumor tissues and tumor-adjacent tissues than those in control cells, and were inversely correlated with the malignancy of the tumor with a positive correlation with ERα and ERβ expression. Insulin-like growth factor-1R protein expression was correlated with clinical stage, and insulin-like growth factor-2R protein expression was inversely correlated with histological grade.


CONCLUSIONS
Insulin-like growth factor system plays an important role in estrogen-induced endometrial carcinogenesis, and overexpression of insulin-like growth factor-1R in the advanced endometrioid adenocarcinoma is not estrogen-dependent.
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Jinling Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine, Jiangsu, China. yuanjiao1965@126.com
Yuan-Jiao
YJ
Liang
Qun
Q
Hao
Hui-Ming
HM
Zhang
Yuan-Zhe
YZ
Wu
Jian-Dong
JD
Wang
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D018269:Carcinoma, Endometrioid / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013002:Somatomedins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D012333:RNA, Messenger; D011960:Receptors, Estrogen; D013002:Somatomedins