title: Co-expression and clinical utility of Snail and N-cadherin in papillary thyroid carcinoma.
abstract: Papillary thyroid carcinoma is one of the most common subtypes of thyroid cancer and portends a good prognosis. N-cadherin (neural cadherin) is a member of the classical cadherin family and is often overexpressed in many types of cancers. Snail, a kind of zinc finger protein, is a transcriptional repressor which has been intensively studied in mammals. We investigate the immunohistochemical expression of Snail and N-cadherin in papillary thyroid carcinoma tissues and cells and then discuss the clinical value of Snail and N-cadherin expression. Immunohistochemical technique was performed to detect Snail and N-cadherin in 60 cases of papillary thyroid carcinoma and analyzed the relationship between the expression of Snail, N-cadherin, and clinicopathological indicators. Western blot was used to investigate the constitutive and inducible expression of Snail and N-cadherin. In our study, the expression rate of Snail and N-cadherin was 85.0 % (51/60) and 78.3 % (47/60), respectively, in papillary thyroid carcinoma. The expression rate of Snail and N-cadherin in thyroid papillary carcinoma with metastatic lymph nodes was 93.3 and 86.7 %, respectively, while in papillary thyroid carcinoma tissue without lymph node metastasis, the expression rate was 60.0 and 53.3 %, respectively. The positive correlation of Snail and N-cadherin was observed (r = 0.721, p < 0.01). In addition, Western blot further identified the constitutive and inducible expression of Snail and N-cadherin in papillary thyroid carcinoma tissues and cell lines. In conclusion, Snail and N-cadherin are constitutively and inducibly expressed in papillary thyroid carcinoma and may play important roles in the development and metastasis of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Snail and N-cadherin may be used as an effective indicator.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, 38# Wuyingshan Road, 250031, Jinan, Shandong, China. sdyangxs@126.com.
authors.forename: Xiangshan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, 38# Wuyingshan Road, 250031, Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Ranran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Affiliated Hospital of Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, 38# Wuyingshan Road, 250031, Jinan, Shandong, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000378:metabolism*; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism; D015820:Cadherins / Q000378:metabolism*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000378:metabolism*; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000071250:Snail Family Transcription Factors / Q000378:metabolism*; D000077273:Thyroid Cancer, Papillary; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C050361:CDH2 protein, human; D015820:Cadherins; C000604407:SNAI1 protein, human; D000071250:Snail Family Transcription Factors
keywords: N-cadherin; Papillary thyroid carcinoma; Snail