title: Expression of β-catenin and E- and N-cadherin in human brainstem gliomas and clinicopathological correlations.
abstract: Brainstem gliomas are usually associated with serious dysfunction and poor prognosis especially for diffuse intrinsic brainstem gliomas; however, the reasons are still unclear. Some clinical studies have suggested that the invasive ability may be different among brainstem gliomas, and the dysfunction of β-catenin and E- and N-cadherin appears to be connected with tumor invasion and progression. In this study, the expression of β-catenin and E- and N-cadherin was detected in 40 brainstem glioma samples using immunochemistry and was further analyzed in 18 samples using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. The clinicopathological characteristics were also analyzed. The results show that there was no obvious staining for E-cadherin, but weak expression at the messenger RNA (mRNA) level could be seen in a few samples. The protein and mRNA expression levels of β-catenin and N-cadherin were significantly associated with the pathological grades of brainstem gliomas. No significant differences in the expression levels of β-catenin and N-cadherin were observed for age, sex, location or diffuse growing pattern. The overall survival of patients with low β-catenin expression was longer than that with high β-catenin expression, and there was a trend toward increased expression of N-cadherin with shorter survival; however, both of them had no statistical differences. These results demonstrate that expression of β-catenin and N-cadherin is associated with the malignant progression of brainstem gliomas but not correlated with the diffuse and invasive growing pattern. β-catenin and N-cadherin are potential therapeutic targets and prognostic markers for brainstem glioma, which need to be validated in a larger patient cohort.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital Capital Medical University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wenhao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yongji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Junyan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Yongmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Liwei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000235:genetics; D020295:Brain Stem Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D015820:Cadherins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D005910:Glioma / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D051176:beta Catenin / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C050361:CDH2 protein, human; C495270:CTNNB1 protein, human; D015820:Cadherins; D051176:beta Catenin