title: Reduced expression levels of the death-associated protein kinase and E-cadherin are correlated with the development of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.
abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the expression levels of the death-associated protein kinase (DAPK) and E-cadherin in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and their correlation with clinical and pathological factors. Immunohistochemistry [streptavidin-peroxidase (SP) method], in situ hybridization, immunoblot assays and reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) were used to detect the expression of DAPK and E-cadherin in the carcinomas and the adjacent normal tissues of 76 cases of esophageal squamous carcinomas. The immunoblot assay indicated that the expression levels of DAPK and E-cadherin were decreased significantly in the ESCC tissue (P<0.05) when compared with the adjacent normal tissues. The RT-PCR results showed that the mRNA levels of DAPK and E-cadherin were reduced. The abnormal expression of DAPK was highly correlated with the invasiveness and lymphatic metastasis of the cancer. The abnormal expression of E-cadherin was highly correlated with the differentiation and lymphatic metastasis of the cancer. The decreased expression levels of DAPK and E-cadherin correlated with the development of ESCC. The combined detection of DAPK and E-cadherin proteins may be correlated with the degree of malignancy and metastatic potency of ESCC.
authors: Department of Thoracic Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Hebei Engineering University, Handan, Hebei 056002,  P.R. China.
authors: Jianwen
authors: J
authors: Zhai
authors: Xiaogang
authors: X
authors: Yang
authors: Yanli
authors: Y
authors: Zhang
authors: Qingbin
authors: Q
authors: Qi
authors: Jigang
authors: J
authors: Hu
authors: Qiaomei
authors: Q
authors: Wang
keywords: E-cadherin; death-associated protein kinase; esophageal squamous cell carcinoma